New  England 

What  It  Is  and  What  It  Is  To  Be 


New  England 


Edited  by 

George  French 


Boston 

Boston  Chamber  of  Commerce 
1911 
Jf 


Copyright,  1911, 
By  Boston  Chamber  of  Commerce 


The  University  Press,  Cambridge,  U.S.A. 


Prepared  under  the  direction  of  a  special  com- 
mittee of  the  Boston  Chamber  of  Commerce,  con- 
sisting of  Walter  M.  Lowney,  chairman  of  the 
Trade  Extension  committee,  George  S.  Smith, 
chairman  of  the  committee  on  Manufactures, 
and  George  B.  Gallup  of  the  Publicity  committee. 


Prefatory  Note 

THE  reason  for  this  book  is  the  desire  of  the  Boston  Cham- 
ber of  Commerce  to  acquaint  the  people  of  New  England  with 
the  country  they  live  in,  and  furnish  them  with  the  means  to 
acquaint  others.  It  has  been  a  fault  of  New  England  people 
that  they  have  been  keenly  alive  to  the  growth  and  develop- 
ment of  all  sections  of  the  country  except  their  own,  and  that 
they  have  had  a  better  knowledge  of  all  other  sections  than  of 
their  own.  New  England  has  been  so  earnestly  engaged  in  de- 
veloping the  rest  of  the  country  that  its  people  have  had  no 
time  to  notice  the  growing  demand  for  development  at  home. 
Now  there  is  an  awakening.  We  are  beginning  to  realize  that 
there  is  here  at  home  as  much  opportunity  as  anywhere  in  the 
country,  and  we  are  slowly  finding  out  what  that  opportun- 
ity is. 

This  book  is  not  a  catalogue  of  the  opportunities  nor  the 
achievements  of  New  England.  It  treats  of  both.  An  effort  has 
been  made  to  show,  in  an  impressionistic  manner,  what  New 
England  is  and  what  it  may  be,  if  its  people  will  turn  their 
attention  to  the  work  of  developing  it  with  the  same  earnest 
devotion  they  have  lavished  upon  the  other  sections.  Statistics 
have  been  avoided,  as  also  have  eulogistic  statements.  That 
which  is  herein  set  forth  is,  so  far  as  possible,  plain  statement 
of  fact,  and  mostly  well-known  fact.  The  possibilities  are  all 
soberly  stated. 

If  it  is  necessary  to  apologize  for  the  manifest  defects  of 
the  book,  or  for  that  of  which  it  docs  not  treat,  or  for  that 
which  it  does  not  treat  adequately,  let  the  apology  be  that  the 
editor  is  aware  of  more,  and  more  serious,  defects  than  the 
most  determined  critic  can  discover;  and  regrets  them  more 
keenly. 

The  editor  wishes  to  gratefully  acknowledge  his  indebted- 
ness to  every  person  who  has  assisted  in  the  preparation  of 

[vii] 


Prefatory  Note 

this  book,  either  by  contributing  to  its  pages  or  by  suggestion 
or  information.  There  are  too  many  to  admit  of  mention  of 
all.  Those  who  have  contributed  are:  Mr.  Edwin  M.  Bacon, 
Boston,  the  chapter  on  "  Waterpowers  " ;  President  Kenyon 
L.  Butterfield  of  the  Massachusetts  Agricultural  College,  Dr. 
E.  H.  Jenkins  of  the  Connecticut  Agricultural  Experiment 
Station,  Mr.  H.  F.  Tompson,  Seekonk,  Mass.,  Prof.  F.  C. 
Sears  of  the  Massachusetts  Agricultural  College,  Prof. 
Charles  D.  Woods  of  the  Maine  Agricultural  Experiment 
Station,  Mr.  William  H.  Bowker,  Boston,  Mr.  A.  W.  Fulton, 
Springfield,  Mass.,  and  Mr.  G.  C.  Sevey,  Springfield,  Mass., 
the  chapter  on  "  New  England  Farming  " ;  Dr.  J.  A.  Bon- 
steel,  Washington,  the  chapter  on  "  New  England  Soils  " ; 
Mr.  Harold  Parker,  Boston,  the  chapter  on  "  Good  Roads  " ; 
Mr.  Winthrop  L.  Marvin,  Boston,  the  portion  treating  of 
textiles  in  the  chapter  on  "  New  England  Manufacturing  " ; 
Dr.  David  Snedden,  Massachusetts  Commissioner  of  Educa- 
tion, and  his  deputies,  Messrs.  Charles  A.  Prosser  and  Wil- 
liam Orr,  the  chapter  on  "  Education  " ;  Mr.  D.  F.  Edwards, 
Boston,  the  chapter  on  "  The  Industrial  Boston " ;  Mr. 
Thomas  F.  Anderson,  Boston,  the  chapter  on  "  New  England 
Summer  Resorts,"  and  data  about  the  shoe  and  leather  in- 
dustries ;  Mr.  George  P.  Morris,  Boston,  the  chapter  on 
"  Religion  " ;  Mr.  Richard  H.  Edmonds,  Baltimore,  the  chap- 
ter entitled  "An  Expert's  Opinion";  Prof.  F.  W.  Rane, 
Boston,  the  chapter  on  "  Forestry  " ;  Mr.  James  A.  McKib- 
ben,  Boston,  the  chapter  on  "  Commerce  " ;  to  the  chapter 
on  "  The  New  England  States  "  Hon.  Robert  Luce,  Somer- 
ville,  Mass.,  Mr.  Charles  E.  Julin,  New  Haven,  Conn.,  Mr. 
Colby  Stoddard,  Newport,  Vt.,  and  Mr.  J.  John  Buzzell, 
Boston,  contributed;  Mr.  George  B.  Gallup,  Boston,  the 
chapter  on  "  Publicity  for  New  England."  The  New  Eng- 
land Homestead,  railroad  officials,  Mr.  J.  Horace  McFarland 
of  Harrisburg,  Pa.,  school  authorities,  manufacturers  and 
others  have  contributed  photographs. 

BOSTON,  October,  1910. 


Vlll 


Contents 

PAGE 

New  England 1 

The  Charm  of  New  England 32 

Manufacturing  in  New  England 48 

New  England  Waterpowers 87 

New  England  Agriculture 110 

Soils  of  New  England 166 

Forestry  in  New  England 179 

New  England  Workmen 189 

The  Industrial  Boston 197 

Boston  :  The  Next  Phase 221 

Transportation 233 

Good  Roads  in  New  England 250 

New  England  Commerce 260 

New  England  Summer  Resorts     ." 282 

Education  in  New  England 301 

Religion  in  New  England 320 

Publicity  in  New  England        331 

Civic  Work  in  New  England 342 

An  Expert's  Estimate 361 

Commission  Government 372 

The  New  England  States '     .    -.     .  380 

Potential  New  England 418 


Illustrations 

PAGE 

New  England  Settlement  East  of  the  Mississippi  River .     .    Opp.    7 

Typical  New  England  Farm  Home 24 

A  New  England  Town  Hall 30 

The  Old  Oaken  Bucket  at  Melvin,  N.  H 36 

Bringing  in  the  Sap,  Vermont 42 

Wood  Worsted  Mill,  Lawrence,  Mass 54 

The  Arlington  Mills,  Lawrence,  Mass 62 

Factory  of  The  Gorhani  Company,  Providence,  R.  I.      ...  70 

Nashawena  Cotton  Mills,  New  Bedford,  Mass 78 

Print  Works  of  Pacific  Mills,  Lawrence,  Mass 84 

A  Field  of  Boston  Lettuce 114 

A  Commercial  Apple  Orchard  in  Northern  Vermont       .     .     .  120 

Mr.  J.  H.  Hale  and  one  of  his  Apple  Trees  at  Seymour,  Conn.  126 

Prize  Apples  at  the  Boston  Show  in  1909 134 

A  Connecticut  Peach  Orchard  Showing  Irrigation  Method      .  142 

A  Profitable  Peach  Orchard  was  Planted  on  this  Land  .     .     .  148 

A  New  Hampshire  Country  Home 150 

A  Massachusetts  Country  House 152 

Prize-Winning  Oxen  at  Danbury,  Conn.,  Fair 156 

A  Veteran  Apple  Tree  in  Bloom 158 

A  Field  of  Shade-Grown  Tobacco 160 

Clydesdale  Stallion,  Native  of  Maine 164 

Holsteiii  Bull,  Owned  in  Massachusetts 164 

Typical  Valley  Farm  Land  in  New  England 168 

Wellesley  Farms  Station,  on  the  Boston  &  Albany  Railroad    .  176 

White  Pines  Forty  Years  Old,  in  Carver,  Mass 182 

White  Pine  Transplants,  Six  Years  After  Setting      ....  186 

Hale  Peach  Orchard,  Connecticut  —  Two-year-old  Tree     .     .  192 

Charles  River  Basin,  Boston 216 

Wellesley  Hills  Station,  on  the  Boston  &  Albany  Railroad     .  218 

[    *    J 


Illustrations 

PAGE 

Wedgemere  Station,  on  the  Boston  &  Maine  Railroad  .     .     .  236 

Electric  and  Steam  Railroads  in  the  Boston  District      .       Opp.  243 

Hoosac  Tunnel  Docks,  Boston  &  Maine  Railroad,  Boston  .     .  244 

Map  of  Massachusetts  Showing  State  Highways 252 

Modern  State  Road,  Cape  Cod 254 

Road  Around  "  Jacob's  Ladder,"  Morey  Hill,  Becket     .     .     .  256 

Pelham  Manor  Station,  on  the  N.  Y.,  N.  H.  &  H.  Railroad    .  258 

Map  Showing  Proposed  Boston  Harbor  Improvements  .     .     .  264 

Boston  Chamber  of  Commerce  Building 278 

Approach  to  Station  on  the  Boston  &  Albany  Railroad  .     .     .  280 

Mt.  Washington  from  Base  Station,  Train  Going  Up      .     .     .  284 

Sportsmen's  Cabins  at  Heald  Pond,  Maine 2f)0 

Looking  South  from  Summit  of  Mt.  Washington 296 

Newton,  Mass.,  Technology  High  School 304 

Girls  Make  Their  Own  Graduation  Gowns 310 

A  Workroom  in  the  Worcester  Trade  School 316 

Typical  New  England  Village  Street 326 

New  England  Credo 336 

The  Mother  of  Village  Improvement  Societies 350 

A  New  England  High  School 358 

The  Home  of  Mr.  Maxfield  Parrish,  Cornish,  N.  H 366 

A  Picturesque  and  Progressive  New  England  Town  ....  376 

Home  of  Helen  Keller  at  Wrentham,  Mass 378 

Typical  Boston  Suburban  Residence 382 

Scene  in  Berkshire  Hills 384 

A  Massachusetts  Village  Street 386 

The  "Minute- Man"  of  1776 388 

Aroostook  Potato  Field  in  Harvest  Time 396 

Summit  House,  Mt.  Mansfield,  Vermont 404 

The  Main  Street  in  a  New  Hampshire  Village 410 

Bridge  at  West  Haven,  Conn.,  on  N.  Y.,  N.  H.  &  H.  R.R.       .  416 

Village  Residence  at  Hatfield,  Mass 420 

Within  Eight  Miles  of  Massachusetts  State  House    ....  424 

One  of  the  Unoccupied  New  England  Farmhouses    ....  426 

A  Boston  Suburban  Residence 430 


[xii] 


New  England 

What  It  Is  and  What  It  Is  To  Be 


New  England 


THE  six  states  of  the  United  States  which  constitute  the 
arbitrary  geographical  section  known  as  New  England  oc- 
cupy a  unique  position  in  the  history  of  the  country,  and  have 
a  story  that  teems  with  interest.  No  other  section  of  the  world 
has  had  so  much  that  was  consequential  to  do  with  the  de- 
velopment of  this  era  as  has  New  England,  or  has  done  it  so 
gloriously  well.  The  reasons  for  this  are  partly  natural, 
partly  historical,  and  partly  providential.  Nature  thrust 
New  England  out  into  the  ocean  in  such  a  manner  as  to  make 
it  probable  that  whoever  should  come  discovering  from  the 
Old  World  would  be  caught  on  her  rocky  shore.  New  Eng- 
land did  catch  the  vital  immigrants  from  Europe.  That  they 
were  directed  hither  instead  of  to  some  other  section  of  the 
eastern  coast  of  the  new  Western  World  suggests  the  germ  of 
the  providential  element  in  the  story  of  our  beginning,  and 
history  is  slowly  disclosing  to  us  the  great  fact  that  the 
event  of  the  birth  of  this  land  was  an  essential  arc  in  the 
grand  cycle  of  Christian  civilization  that  Omnipotence  was 
then  bringing  into  view.  We  trace  the  workings  of  conscious 
design  in  the  development  of  New  England,  looking  backward 
in  the  light  of  history,  and  note  the  part  played  by  physical 
location,  climate,  soil,  race,  religion,  circumstance;  and  that 
greater  than  any  other  force,  the  aspiration  of  the  human 
race  toward  higher  civilization,  which  we  are  but  beginning 
to  understand. 

While  we  are  forgetting  the  old  geographical  divisions  of 
the  states  of  the  Union,  which  classed  them  as  North  Atlantic, 
South  Atlantic,  Southern,  Gulf,  Middle  Western,  North- 
western, Southwestern,  Pacific,  etc.,  the  distinction  which  has 
set  off  New  England  remains  as  precise  as  ever,  and  there  is 
nowhere  a  disposition  to  forget  or  ignore  the  sectional  classi- 
fication. New  England  is  a  unit,  in  fact  as  well  as  in  the  minds 


New  England 

of  the  people  of  the  world,  and  it  is  as  a  unit  that  it  must  be 
considered.  This  fact  does  not  indicate  that  the  people  of 
New  England  believe  themselves  to  be  in  any  sense  a  peculiar 
people,  different  from  the  people  of  any  other  section  of  the 
country,  superior  or  inferior  to  any  other  people  of  any  other 
state  or  section.  We  are  set  apart,  so  far  as  we  are  differently 
located  and  circumstanced,  to  our  advantage  or  disadvantage, 
and  we  are  to  make  the  best  of  the  fate  that  has  come  to  us 
through  physical  facts  that  we  had  nothing  to  do  with  mak- 
ing and  economic  facts  that  our  forbears  have  created. 

New  England  is  the  land  of  opportunity.  It  has  the  greatest 
potential  future  of  any  section  of  the  country,  for  reasons 
that  are  obvious.  It  is  no  argument  against  the  future  of  New 
England  to  say  that  it  does  not  utilize  its  opportunities.  No 
section  of  the  United  States  does  that.  No  state  does  it,  nor 
any  town.  It  has  not  been  necessary  to  do  so,  and  until  it  is 
necessary  it  will  not  be  done.  New  England  comes  nearer 
to  applying  the  intensive  method  to  its  industries  and  to  its 
agriculture  than  any  other  section,  and  its  business  men  are 
giving  the  subject  more  practical  study  and  attention.  They 
will  be  ready  whenever  the  country  demands  more  than  the 
cream.  They  are  now  ready,  in  many  lines,  and  there  is  a  vast 
amount  of  work  now  going  on  in  many  other  lines  in  the  way 
of  preparation.  There  are  commercial  bodies,  publicity  clubs, 
and  various  civic  associations,  which  are  doing  the  most  valu- 
able investigation  work,  and  are  sending  into  the  country  a 
constant  stream  of  information  and  creating  a  steadily  rising 
tide  of  enthusiasm.  There  are  few  towns  but  have  some  ex- 
ample of  the  new  farming,  in  successful  operation  and  demon- 
strating what  can  be  done  through  the  application  of  modern 
methods  and  scientific  knowledge,  some  new  factory  projected, 
some  new  industry  taking  shape,  or  some  practical  plan  for 
civic  and  industrial  betterment  engaging  the  constant  atten- 
tion of  their  citizens.  There  are  many  manufactories  that  are 
run  upon  the  highest  scale  of  efficiency,  as  that  new  profession 
is  understood  by  its  expert  exponents.  There  are  many  model 
towns  —  model  in  the  sense  that  they  are  organized  and  oper- 
ated upon  good  business  principles,  and  have  demonstrated 

[  M 


New  England 

that  it  is  quite  possible  to  conduct  the  communal  business  of 
an  association  of  citizens  calling  itself  a  town  in  as  economic 
and  successful  a  manner  as  the  business  of  a  private  corpora- 
tion can  be  conducted. 

There  are  everywhere  in  New  England  evidences  of  the 
prevalence  and  the  influence  of  the  new  spirit  in  business,  and 
that  this  spirit  exists  and  is  manifesting  itself  in  a  practical 
manner  is  the  most  hopeful  sign  that  New  England  has  en- 
tered upon  a  new  era  in  its  industrial  life.  This  new  spirit  in 
business  is  promoted  by  a  new  spirit  in  social  and  civic  life. 
The  people  of  New  England  seem  to  be  seized  with  the  desire 
to  work  for  the  common  good,  quite  aside  from  whatever  per- 
sonal profit  they  may  believe  may  ultimately  flow  from  com- 
munal interests.  This  is  being  demonstrated  in  many  ways, 
but  in  none  with  more  marked  effect  than  by  the  work  of  the 
associations  of  business  men  known  variously  as  boards  of 
trade,  chambers  of  commerce,  civic  clubs,  publicity  clubs,  and 
the  like.  A  study  of  these  bodies  reveals  the  business  temper 
and  aspirations  of  the  times.  The  work  they  are  doing  is  dif- 
ferent in  aim  and  quality  from  work  ever  before  attempted  by 
such  bodies,  and  vastly  more  practical  and  consequential. 
The  organized  efficiency  of  these  bodies  is  of  a  high  order, 
and  is  made  possible  by  the  unselfish  personal  service  given  by 
the  members.  A  large  proportion  of  the  work  of  these  quasi 
public  bodies  is  of  necessity  of  a  nature  which  does  not  reach 
definite  results  —  formative,  suggestive,  and  advisory ;  but 
each  of  them  has  a  roll  of  definite  accomplishments  which  so 
much  more  than  justifies  its  efforts  as  to  warrant  the  belief 
that  they  will  finally  lead  the  way  up  to  some  form  of  indus- 
trial cooperation  which  will  solve  many  of  the  painful  and 
perplexing  problems  coming  from  the  modern  study  of  labor 
and  social  conditions,  as  well  as  those  more  definitely  in  the 
field  of  business. 

It  is  the  New  England  character  that  must  be  considered  in 
dealing  with  the  question  of  the  development  of  New  England. 
If  there  is  a  hindrance  to  progress  in  New  England  it  is  that 
same  New  England  character,  which  has  ever  been  loath  to 
accept  optimism  for  its  guiding  motive.  The  rocks  of  New 

[3] 


New  England 

England  make  possible  the  distinctive  flavor  of  the  New  Eng- 
land apples,  and  in  like  analogy  it  may  be  just  to  attribute 
the  restraint  of  New  England  character  to  the  influence  and 
the  unconscious  memory  of  generations  of  contention  with  the 
hard  natural  conditions  surrounding  industrial  life  in  New 
England  during  its  first  two  centuries.  There  has  been  a  cer- 
tain grim  liking  for  adverse  conditions  in  the  New  England 
character  which  has  operated  to  produce  reluctant  assent  to 
optimism.  The  old-fashioned  New  Englander  often  chose  the 
harder  part  apparently  for  the  very  joy  of  martyrdom.  Not 
a  few  of  the  men  of  New  England  seem  yet  to  feel  the  same 
impulse.  It  was  long  a  part  of  the  creed  of  our  fathers  that 
the  flesh  must  be  "  mortified,"  and  it  was  their  inclination  to 
reject  whatever  promised  pleasure,  ease,  or  comfort.  Profit 
they  were  in  the  habit  of  accepting,  if  it  came  to  them  in  obvi- 
ous guise.  They  never  would  concede  that  one  field  was  better 
for  corn  than  another.  If  they  elected  to  plant  corn,  and  it  did 
not  elect  to  grow  and  ripen  into  a  plentiful  crop,  the  failure 
was  charged  up  to  providence  —  and  the  same  field  planted 
to  corn  the  next  year,  and  the  next.  The  Pilgrims  and  the 
Puritans  persisted  in  whatever  course  they  believed  was  di- 
vinely marked  out  for  them.  They  trusted  the  Lord  to  provide 
nitrogenous  stimulant  for  their  fields,  and  would  probably 
have  regarded  the  planting  of  inoculated  clover  as  an  appeal 
to  witchcraft.  We  of  today  have  plenty  of  the  same  spirit. 
We  hope  for  divine  intervention  in  the  matter  of  the  fertility 
of  our  fields,  and  we  are  inclined  to  be  persistently  stubborn 
in  matters  of  custom  and  tradition  in  our  business  methods. 
Tell  an  ingrained  New  Englander  that  his  old  apple  orchard 
can  be  made  to  produce  twice  as  many  apples  as  he  has  har- 
vested in  his  best  year  and  he  will  not  believe  it;  neither  will 
the  average  New  England  business  man  believe  that  the  effi- 
ciency expert  can  so  order  his  business  that  it  will  yield  10 
or  25  per  cent  more  profit.  We  are  averse  to  the  new,  we  do 
not  like  to  experiment,  and  we  believe  that  that  which  we  are 
told  must  involve  experiment  because  it  is  outside  of  our  ex- 
perience. There  are  in  New  England  men  who  have  for  twenty- 
five  years  practised  scientific  farming,  and  made  money  con- 

[4] 


New  England 

stantly,  and  their  example  has  not  induced  one  neighbor  to 
adopt  their  methods. 

Nature  has  made  New  England  different  from  the  other 
sections  of  the  country,  and  the  circumstances  of  their  ances- 
try and  environment  have  made  the  New  England  people 
somewhat  different  from  the  people  of  other  sections.  While 
a  strong  cosmopolitan  tendency  has  been  bred  by  modern 
conditions  of  business  and  life,  and  New  England  has  partici- 
pated in  this  trend,  there  are  certain  conditions  which  insure 
for  us  a  marked  individualism.  In  the  not  very  remote  past 
this  tendency  was  fairly  described  as  insularity;  but  that 
phase  of  our  progression  has  happily  passed,  and  we  are  now 
no  more  individualistic,  as  a  section,  than  the  peculiar  climatic 
and  industrial  conditions  force  us  to  be.  The  problem  we  have 
now  to  face  is  involved  largely  in  the  full  recognition  of  the 
nature  and  extent  of  the  differences  which  New  England  has 
to  consider;  an  estimate  of  those  different  conditions,  and  an 
assay  of  our  ability  and  disposition  to  meet  them.  Not  all  of 
these  conditions  are  such  as  imply  disadvantages ;  but  few  of 
them  are  such.  Many  of  the  more  consequential  conditions 
imply  advantages. 

For  a  long  time  New  Englanders  were  conscious  that  they 
were  the  leaders  in  the  building  of  this  nation,  and  at  least 
half  a  dozen  generations  were  bred  up  in  that  knowledge. 
From  working  out  their  own  supremacy  New  Englanders  went 
out  into  the  wider  nation  and  built  it  up,  and  so  strengthened 
the  feeling  of  adequate  power  which  was  their  inheritance, 
even  though  that  very  process  weakened  the  stock  that  was 
left  at  home,  and  began  the  erosion  of  race  that  resulted  in 
deteriorated  vigor  and  faltering  initiative.  The  result  was 
that  there  came  over  New  England  an  era  of  halting  effort, 
due  to  loss  of  primal  vigor  to  the  West,  and  the  other  newer 
sections.  New  England  had  scarcely  begun  to  thrive  when  she 
was  called  to  pioneer  beyond  the  Alleghanies,  and  thence  to 
the  Mississippi  Valley,  the  Northwest,  the  Southwest,  the 
Pacific  Slope,  and  finally  to  Canada.  All  this  time,  from  the 
early  pioneer  days  to  the  Middle  West  to  this  day  of  the 
Canadian  Northwest,  there  has  been  a  drain  of  New  England 

[5] 


New  England 

energy  and  initiative.  The  Pilgrims  and  the  Puritans  of  New 
England  were  all  pioneers,  and  they  bred  pioneers.  There  has 
ever  been  a  call  for  New  England  to  open  other  sections  of 
America,  and  the  call  has  always  been  heeded.  It  has  been  in 
America  the  call  of  the. West,  and  the  tide  of  settlement  and 
enterprise  has  rolled  toward  the  Pacific,  and  then  northward 
into  the  great  fertile  lands  of  Western  Canada.  This  tide 
started  from  New  England,  and  though  it  has  been  reinforced 
from  the  South,  and  later  from  all  the  intermediate  regions, 
as  well  as  by  the  great  stream  of  immigration  from  Europe 
and  Asia,  there  has  been  a  constant  exhaustion  of  New  Eng- 
land's vitality  comparable  only  to  the  giving  of  her  own  life 
to  her  children  by  a  mother.  New  England  suffered,  and  suf- 
fered more  acutely  and  fundamentally  than  ever  will  be  esti- 
mated. The  wholesale  and  continued  transfusion  of  her  best 
blood  to  the  veins  of  the  newer  states  could  only  mean  the 
weakening  of  her  own  constitution  and  the  limiting  of  her  own 
development. 

The  westward  migration  of  initiative  meant  such  a  breeding 
of  the  pioneer  habit  as  necessarily  must  result  in  superficial 
and  speculative  work  and  habit  of  mind.  So  long  as  there  was 
new  land  spontaneously  to  yield  crops,  so  long  as  there  were 
coming  into  being  new  towns  and  cities  to  demand  growth  and 
sustenance  of  trade  and  foster  extravagance  and  ruthlessncss, 
so  long  would  the  pioneer  spirit  run  rampant  and  ignore  in- 
tensive methods  and  sane  propositions  of  growth.  The  stern 
pioneerage  of  the  early  New  Englanders,  when  it  was  a  hardy 
enterprise  to  migrate  to  Buffalo,  pushed  cautiously  westward, 
and  gathered  spirit  and  vehemence  with  its  successes,  until  it 
culminated  in  the  mad  rush  for  the  gold  of  California  in  1849. 
Since  then  sanity  has  been  struggling  for  recognition,  but  the 
drain  of  New  England  has  continued  until  almost  the  present 
time,  diminishing  in  stress  as  the  material  that  New  England 
could  furnish  became  limited  and  as  the  raw  opportunity  be- 
came somewhat  abated. 

It  is  not  adequately  accurate  to  speak  of  the  breeding  of 
the  pioneer  instinct  in  connection  with  the  industrial  migra- 
tions of  the  early  New  Englanders.  This  instinct  was  bred  in 

[  6] 


watt 


90        Longitude        85         West  from      80        Oroeuwkh 


New  England 
Settlement 

East  of  the  Mississippi  River 
before  1860. 

M||New  Englan  1  Settlement 
ESS3  All  Other  Settlement  . 


From  "The  Expansion  of  New  England,"  by  Lois  Kimball  Mathev 
published  by  Houghton  Mifflin  Company,  Boston 


New  England 

their  race  long  before  they  began  to  go  out  from  the  early 
settlements  and  seek  for  opportunities  to  found  other  pioneer 
towns  and  states.  It  was  their  pioneer  instinct  that  originally 
brought  the  Pilgrims  to  the  shores  of  New  England,  and  the 
workings  of  that  instinct  were  so  persistent  and  so  powerful 
that  they  were  drawn  from  one  little  community  to  seek  for  a 
site  for  another  long  before  the  first  had  settled  into  a  condi- 
tion approaching  comfort  or  economic  direction.  It  is  illumi- 
nating to  note  the  development  of  the  motives  which  led  these 
people  from  one  crude  experiment  in  civilized  communal  life 
to  another  yet  more  crude,  and  having  less  probability  to 
offer  for  successful  existence.  The  story  is  most  lucidly  and 
interestingly  told  by  Mrs.  Lois  Kimball  Mathews  in  her  won- 
4erfully  interesting  book  on  "  The  Expansion  of  New  Eng- 
land." Of  all  the  tales  of  crusaders  and  pioneers  told  since 
the  world  began  there  is  none  more  interesting  than  this,  for 
those  people  opened  the  world  as  they  went  from  point  to 
point,  and  they  carried  freedom  along  with  them  and  planted 
it  in  every  rood  of  ground  they  snatched  from  the  wilderness 
and  jockeyed  away  from  the  aboriginal  owners.  These  pio- 
neers were  actuated  by  precisely  the  motives  that  actuate  men 
of  today  in  their  pioneer  enterprises.  They  no  sooner  settled 
into  a  township,  or  the  crude  form  of  a  township,  than  some 
of  them  began  to  chafe  at  the  restricting  control  of  their 
church  or  the  unyielding  policy  of  the  communal  government 
they  had  themselves  created;  or  they  conceived  that  they  had 
not  sufficient  land.  While  there  were  but  few  settlers  to  oc- 
cupy all  the  land  that  lay  within  the  limits  of  the  imagina- 
tion, these  men  complained  that  there  was  not  enough,  in  so 
many  instances  and  so  persistently,  as  to  suggest  that  at  that 
early  time  the  hunger  for  land  was  a  dominating  motive  which 
operated  to  open  new  territory  with  sure  and  perennial  per- 
sistency. These  pioneers  always  advanced  in  groups.  Certain 
families  would  find  that  they  did  not  sympathize  with  the  ser- 
mons of  their  minister,  or  protested  against  the  rulings  of 
their  chosen  officers,  or  discovered  that  they  did  not  have 
enough  salt  marsh  from  which  to  harvest  hay  for  their  cows, 
or  that  their  corn  land  did  not  yield  as  much  grain  as  they 

[  7] 


New  England 

wished,  or  some  other  plausible  reason  would  be  assigned  for 
the  wanderlust  that  was  sure  to  sieze  upon  them ;  and  they 
would  apply  to  the  church  for  permission  to  move  on.  This 
tendency  to  migrate  toward  the  west  they  brought  with  them, 
from  their  fathers  and  grandfathers  in  England,  and  wherever 
they  went  they  took  the  habits  and  characteristics  of  their 
county  in  England.  They  based  their  new  towns  solidly  upon 
the  principles  and  forms  they  had  brought  from  their  first 
place  of  residence  in  America,  and  from  the  more  unconscious 
inheritance  from  England,  and  the  traces  of  these  twin  influ- 
ences may  be  found  in  every  town  New  England  stock  was 
instrumental  in  founding,  from  Plymouth  to  Seattle,  modified 
and  adapted  to  suit  conditions,  but  there  in  the  foundations. 

There  is  in  modern  history  nothing  more  significant  than 
this  march  of  New  England  from  Plymouth  to  San  Fran- 
cisco, from  Plymouth  to  the  everglades  of  Florida,  from  Ply- 
mouth to  Texas,  from  Plymouth  to  Los  Angeles,  from 
Plymouth  to  Alaska.  There  is  in  this  spread  of  the  spirit  and 
purpose  of  the  Pilgrims  all  the  fixed  and  regular  design  of  a 
Cook  tour  of  Europe,  all  the  calm  persistence  of  a  Napoleonic 
campaign,  all  the  elements  of  the  steady  advance  of  a  glacial 
drift.  The  only  temporary  check  was  in  the  early  and  weak 
first  manifestation  of  the  tendency,  when  the  King  Philip  war 
turned  the  pioneers  back  by  devasting  their  frontier. 

The  Pilgrims  landed  in  1620,  and  within  seven  years  they 
were  pushing  out  advance  guards,  and  have  continued  that 
westward  movement  until  within  the  past  decade.  There  were 
eras  of  special  progress,  and  times  of  hesitancy.  Previous  to 
the  Revolution  the  progress  was  on  a  scale  that  now  seems 
slow  and  halting.  When  that  war  seemed  destined  to  end 
favorably  to  the  colonies  there  was  inaugurated  what  was  the 
most  considerable  western  movement  from  New  England,  and 
by  1812  not  only  had  New  England  itself  been  pretty  well 
settled  but  the  flow  of  emigration  had  passed  into  New  York 
and  Pennsylvania  and  well  over  the  Alleghanies.  Thence  the 
tide  rolled  on,  and  New  England,  having  built  that  unique 
second  self,  the  Western  Reserve  in  Ohio,  proceeded  to  pour 
her  people  into  Indiana  and  Illinois  and  impress  her  ideas  and 

[8] 


institutions  upon  those  states,  which  had  been  pioneered  in 
their  southern  sections  by  people  from  Kentucky,  Tennessee, 
Virginia,  and  some  other  southern  states.  After  the  building 
of  the  Erie  canal  New  Englanders  went  into  Michigan  and 
Wisconsin,  but  many  of  them  were  transplanted  from  New 
York  and  Pennsylvania ;  and  perhaps  here  is  to  be  placed  the 
first  recognizable  work  of  the  New  Englanders  who  had  origi- 
nally settled  in  some  other  state  and  were  therefore  one  degree 
removed  from  the  stock  on  the  mother  soil.  This  second  edi- 
tion New  England  was  thenceforth  a  very  important  element 
in  the  sweep  of  the  original  stock  toward  the  western  frontier. 
There  is  a  close  kinship  between  all  these  Middle  Western 
states  and  New  England,  gained  direct  from  New  England, 
and  through  the  New  England  dominance  of  western  New 
York  and  more  slightly  of  Pennsylvania.  And  the  tide  swept 
on  toward  the  Pacific,  and  then  deflected  to  the  Canadian 
northwest  and  to  Alaska,  and  in  another  direction  to  the 
Hawaiian  Islands.  It  has  leaped  the  Pacific,  and  is  trickling 
into  China,  Japan,  Corea,  and  the  Philippine  Islands,  where 
it  is  likely  to  lose  itself  in  the  broader  stream  of  Americans. 

The  history  of  Greater  New  England  will  not  be  adequately 
written  until  it  includes  a  careful  study  of  emigration  as  far 
westward  as  the  Pacific  ocean;  and  this  is  one  of  the  most 
vital  facts  to  remember  when  the  industrial  history  and  ex- 
pectation of  New  England  is  being  considered,  and  when  the 
banal  suggestion  is  made  that  New  England  is,  or  ever  has 
been,  industrially  decadent.  New  England  is  now,  and  since 
the  landing  of  the  Pilgrims  at  Plymouth  has  been,  the  most 
vital  element  in  the  development  of  the  lands  and  the  indus- 
tries of  this  New  World. 

Finally  the  national  phase  has  changed.  Now  men  are  think- 
ing about  efficiency  instead  of  discovery,  about  methods  in- 
stead of  opportunity,  about  intensive  cultivation  of  that  which 
is  at  hand  rather  than  taking  up  new  quarter  sections,  about 
developing  placer  and  dredge  mining  in  place  of  prospecting 
for  loose  nuggets  of  metal,  about  economies  of  production  and 
better  methods  of  selling  and  distributing  as  well  as  the  build- 
ing of  new  factories.  A  great  industrial  revolution  is  in  prog- 


New  England 

ress.  The  question  is  not  now  wholly  one  of  enterprise;  it 
involves  more  particularly  problems  of  economic  production 
and  distribution.  The  industrial  and  financial  subsoil  is  being 
turned  up,  as  well  as  the  subsoil  of  the  lands  that  were  not 
long  ago  considered  as  inexhaustable  granaries  with  unlim- 
ited holding  capacity.  From  being  considered  and  operated 
as  gambling  propositions,  the  various  branches  of  business  in 
America  are  being  turned  into  sane  and  sound  enterprises, 
based  upon  demand  and  economic  supply. 

The  rise  of  this  spirit  has  given  New  England  its  second 
opportunity,  and  as  it  becomes  operative  this  section  will 
again  be  esteemed  for  that  which  it  can  offer  in  enterprise  and 
thrift.  New  England  is  ready  and  able  to  contribute  more  than 
its  share  to  the  newer  conception  of  business,  even  as  it  did 
contribute  more  than  its  share  to  the  superficial  pioneer  era. 
With  all  the  drain  upon  the  New  England  resources  while 
the  passion  for  the  new  and  the  raw  was  burning  itself  out 
there  persisted  a  large  modicum  of  the  original  thrift  and  in- 
ertia, and  there  was  always  the  regenerative  processes  going 
on,  to  the  end  that  we  have  never  lost  the  power  and  habit  of 
initiative.  The  rage  for  conquest  did  not  exhaust  the  primi- 
tive stock,  while  it  did  perennially  decimate  it ;  so  that  it  hap- 
pens now  that  there  is  plenty  of  material  to  promote  the 
new  spirit  of  enterprise  that  is  in  motion,  and  there  are  res- 
ervoirs of  special  advantage  that  have  been  quietly  filling 
during  these  generations  of  missionary  work  in  other  sections. 
Now  that  the  refinement  of  scientific  economics  is  being 
studied,  and  put  into  practise,  we  are  able  once  more  to  offer 
to  the  whole  country  such  perfect  opportunity  as  is  available 
nowhere  else.  But  there  is  this  difference,  that  whereas  in  the 
older  time  it  was  our  youth  that  went  out  to  other  sections 
and  developed  the  opportunities  nature  had  provided,  it  is 
now  that  we  have  the  economically  available  opportunity  ade- 
quate for  all  the  latent  energies  of  the  youth  we  are  bringing 
into  the  field,  and  for  the  youth  and  enterprise  from  outside 
our  borders  that  are  coming  to  us. 

The  forces  that  have  brought  rich  opportunity  once  more 
to  New  England  are  well  understood.  The  general  advance 

[  10] 


New  England 

of  production  has  been  forced  by  industrial  conditions.  The 
era  of  prodigal  production  has  passed,  or  is  passing.  The 
questions  that  control  are  different.  Demand  has,  in  many 
lines,  crowded  so  closely  upon  supply  that  many  things  not 
formerly  thought  of  have  become  important.  It  is  now  the  aim 
of  economic  production  to  place  products  into  the  hands  of 
the  ultimate  consumer  at  the  least  cost  and  with  the  least  fric- 
tion. This  means  a  careful  consideration  of  manufacturing 
facilities,  .labor,  transportation,  and  the  availability  of  raw 
material.  While  manufacturing  is  shifting  to  meet  these  con- 
ditions it  is  agriculture  that  is  showing  the  keenest  apprecia- 
tion of  them.  It  was  agriculture  that  made  New  England 
possible,  and  agriculture  is  likely  to  play  an  important  part 
in  making  the  renaissance  of  New  England  an  accomplished 
fact.  In  a  certain  way,  and  to  a  large  extent,  manufacturing 
in  New  England  may  be  said  to  have  perfected  its  processes 
and  realized  its  opportunity.  In  many  lines  New  England 
leads  the  world,  and  the  question  of  improvement  in  those 
lines  involves  the  application  of  the  new  science  of  business 
to  existing  conditions.  This  new  business  science  has  to  do 
with  the  making  of  two  dividends  where  there  was  one,  or  the 
making  of  one  where  there  was  none;  and  it  is  in  no  sense 
peculiarly  adapted  to  New  England.  That  which  is  happening 
in  New  England  agriculture  however  is  the  creation  of  a  new 
industry.  The  old  agriculture  is  dying,  and  its  demise  may 
be  awaited  with  equinimity.  It  has  had  its  day,  and  it  has 
served  its  purpose.  The  new  agriculture  is  a  new  business,  a 
new  profession,  based  upon  real  knowledge  of  the  soil,  the 
markets,  fertilization,  and  the  nature  of  plant  life,  along  with 
the  somewhat  new  belief  that  even  in  farming  business  methods 
are  essential. 

In  the  soil  of  New  England  lies  its  greatest  opportunity,  its 
largest  potential  wealth.  It  has  been  the  belief  of  the  people 
of  New  England  that  its  soil,  except  for  certain  restricted 
areas,  is  too  poor  to  repay  intelligent  effort  in  farming.  It 
was,  in  the  light  of  the  old-time  agriculture,  which  consisted 
in  putting  any  kind  of  seed  into  any  kind  of  ground,  applying 
any  kind  of  fertilizing  and  any  kind  of  cultivation,  and  leav- 


New  England 

ing  the  result  in  the  hands  of  God.  Soon  after  the  advent  of 
the  weather  bureau,  and  the  hostages  to  fortune  that  its 
knowledge  furnished  for  New  England  farmers,  there  began 
to  be  preached  a  new  gospel  of  the  soil,  which  gave  assurance 
that  miracles  almost  could  be  wrought  out  of  the  poor  New 
England  soil.  It  was  mostly  a  question  of  knowledge,  and  not 
primarily  a  question  of  native  richness  of  ground.  The  rais- 
ing of  profitable  crops  of  fruits  was  shown  to  be  a  question 
of  care,  fertilization,  and  spraying  to  kill  the  pests,  rather 
than  the  selection  of  a  foreordained  site  for  the  orchard.  So 
also  of  other  crops  that  had  been  neglected  in  New  England 
because  of  inadequate  knowledge,  or  too  much  information 
that  was  not  so.  Now  we  know  that  it  is  the  demand,  the  trans- 
portation facilities,  the  climate,  and  other  correlative  condi- 
tions, such  as  affect  all  merchandizing,  that  it  is  necessary  to 
study,  as  well  as  the  adaptability  of  the  soil.  If  commercial 
and  climatic  conditions  are  favorable,  there  are  large  margins 
of  adaptability  in  the  soil. 

It  is  quite  apparent  that  knowledge  of  the  soil  has  been 
superficial.  It  is  now  possible  to  know  exactly  what  any  given 
soil  is,  and  if  the  climate,  the  markets,  and  the  requirements 
of  the  people  within  the  zone  of  profitable  distribution  are 
taken  into  the  account,  it  is  not  difficult  for  the  farmer  to 
decide  upon  the  best  crop  for  him  to  raise,  and  resolve  his 
problem  of  success  down  to  an  estimate  of  his  own  ability  and 
resources.  But  it  is  first  necessary  to  know  what  the  soil  is. 
This  cannot  be  determined  by  chemical  analysis  alone.  Indeed, 
it  is  not  safe  to  rely  upon  chemical  analysis  except  as  one  of 
the  elements  of  the  necessary  knowledge.  It  is  of  more  initial 
importance  to  determine  the  origin  of  the  soil  that  is  to  be 
dealt  with.  The  simplest  statement  of  the  processes  of  soil 
formation  is  that  it  is  formed  through  the  action  of  the 
weather  upon  the  land  areas  of  the  earth;  that  soil  is  broken 
fragments  of  rock  mingled  with  organic  plant  remains.  From 
this  simple  statement  of  a  simple  process  the  student  is  led  to 
consider  the  nature  of  the  rock  that  has  been  disintegrated, 
and  of  the  changing  vegetation  which  goes  into  the  soil  as  a 
vital  element ;  of  the  quantity  and  periodicity  of  the  rainfall, 

[  12] 


New  England 

of  the  intensity  and  continuity  of  the  sunlight,  of  the  nature 
of  the  reactions  of  the  chemicals  loosened  from  the  rock,  of 
the  distribution  of  local  soils  by  rain,  streams,  winds,  and 
originally  by  the  glacial  drift  which  so  mixed  the  elements  of 
large  areas.  It  is  not  unusual  to  find  the  soil  of  a  certain  area 
quite  foreign  to  the  rock  formation  of  that  area,  and  foreign 
to  any  specific  rock  formation,  owing,  perhaps,  to  the  fact 
that  a  glacier  had  there  unloaded  an  accumulation  taken  on 
from  the  rocks  of  widely  separated  sections.  Even  this  con- 
glomerate of  soil  material  may  be  covered  by  a  layer  of  fine 
dusty  soil  which  has  been  conveyed  by  prevailing  winds  from 
glacial  deposits  hundreds  of  miles  distant.  These  varying 
characteristics,  and  others,  are  not  found  exclusively  in  dis- 
tinct areas,  large  or  small.  Several  radically  different  soils 
are  frequently  found  on  a  small  farm,  or  even  on  a  single 
acre.  The  rivers  are  working  all  the  time  to  carry  from  the 
region  of  their  source  the  rock  material  there  existing  to  the 
vicinity  of  their  lower  reaches.  The  vast  prehistoric  lava-flows 
in  the  northwest  sections  of  the  United  States  are  being  eroded, 
by  wind  and  water,  and  the  dust  distributed  far  and  wide  to 
add  another  element  to  the  problem  of  the  soil.  The  minerals 
of  the  land  are  being  washed  into  the  sea,  gathered  into  the 
shells  and  bones  of  marine  forms  of  -life,  and  eventually  con- 
tributing to  great  phosphate  deposits.  The  beds  of  disap- 
peared lakes  and  ponds,  and  the  floors  that  were  once  bot- 
toms of  prehistoric  seas,  furnish  another  variety  of  soil,  and 
a  new  set  of  problems  for  the  farmers. 

It  may  well  be  thought  that  these  problems  are  too  intricate 
and  too  numerous  for  the  ordinary  farmer.  The  answer  is 
that  the  farmer  need  not  concern  himself  with  their  solution. 
The  United  States  government,  the  state  governments,  the 
many  colleges  and  scientific  institutions,  solve  them  for  him. 
It  is  however  necessary  that  the  farmers  of  New  England  rec- 
ognize the  existence  of  these  soil  problems,  and  understand 
and  acknowledge  their  relation  to  successful  farming.  If  they 
do  this  they  will  seek  for  guidance  along  the  lines  of  the 
modern  conception  of  the  nature,  origin,  and  use  of  the  many 
varieties  of  soils  that  are  found  everywhere. 

[  13] 


New  England 

New  England  farmer  and  manufacturer  alike  need  to  study 
the  economics  of  their  businesses.  It  is  not  saying  too  much  to 
assert  that  the  new  knowledge  of  economics  makes  it  possible 
for  more  than  half  the  manufacturing  plants  in  all  the  land 
to  add  a  new  dividend  to  their  profits  equal  to,  if  not  in  excess 
of,  the  legal  rate  of  interest,  without  reducing  labor  cost  or 
the  quality  of  material  or  workmanship.  More  than  this  may 
be  said  of  the  land.  Business  methods,  with  the  new  knowledge, 
applied  to  land  may  be  relied  upon  to  double  the  product  of 
the  New  England  farms  without  increasing  their  area.  Inten- 
sive farming  is  not  the  whole  story,  though  an  interesting 
chapter,  of  the  possibilities  of  New  England  land.  If  New 
England  farming  could  be  so  reduced  to  a  business  proposi- 
tion as  to  make  the  farmer  a  possible  borrower  of  capital  the 
longest  step  toward  land  wealth  would  have  been  taken.  Much 
of  the  manufacturing  and  mercantile  business  of  the  world  is 
done  with  borrowed  capital,  at  least  during  the  development 
period.  It  is  not  so  with  the  farmer.  He  is  not  able  to  borrow 
a  cent  on  his  business,  because  he  is  rarely  able  to  tell  what 
his  business  is.  If  he  borrows  money  it  is  on  his  real  estate. 
If  he  was  able  to  go  to  his  bank  with  balance  sheets  covering 
a  series  of  years  and  showing  his  actual  net  profit,  and  that 
all  expense  had  been  charged  against  the  farm,  he  could  bor- 
row as  much  money  as  any  business  man,  and  he  would  not 
have  to  jeopardize  his  home.  New  England  farms  are  gener- 
ally too  small.  They  furnish  employment  for  but  one  or  two 
men,  and  the  returns  are  usually  no  more  than  the  owner 
could  make  at  day  labor.  There  is  in  them,  as  conducted,  no 
opportunity  for  capital.  Their  owners  are  independent  only 
in  name.  They  are  bound  more  firmly,  and  they  make  less 
money,  than  if  they  were  employed  by  large  owners  as  super- 
intendents, or  in  many  cases  even  as  laborers.  The  farmer 
who  succeeds,  by  practising  the  most  rigid  economy  and  work- 
ing "  from  sun  to  sun,"  in  putting  two  or  three  hundred  dol- 
lars in  the  bank  each  year  believes  that  he  is  making  money. 
Usually  he  is  losing  money,  as  he  would  realize  if  he  were  to 
attempt  the  disillusioning  task  of  making  a  balance  sheet.  He 
would  find  that  he  was  neither  getting  interest  on  his  invest- 

[  14] 


New  England 

ment,  paying  for  repairs  and  depreciation,  nor  allowing  him- 
self a  decent  wage,  not  to  mention  the  other  fixed,  or  overhead, 
charges.  There  is  a  strong  tendency  in  New  England  to  better 
this  condition  of  neglect  of  business  principles.  There  arc- 
many  farmers  who  are  applying  business  methods  to  their 
business,  and  who  have  tliat  respect  for  themselves  and  their 
vocation  which  impels  them  to  treat  their  matters  as  other 
business  men  treat  theirs.  This  is  the  first  and  the  most  im- 
portant step  in  the  direction  of  putting  farming  upon  a  busi- 
ness basis,  and  interesting  capital  in  it. 

The  fiction  of  "  the  decadence  of  New  England,"  which 
has  for  many  years  been. a  favorite  topic  of  critics  of  this 
region,  and  has  been  too  much  considered  by  our  own  people, 
may  be  dismissed  with  a  few  words  of  explanation.  It  has 
never  had  standing  with  well-informed  people,  and  it  could 
never  be  substantiated  by  those  who  dwelt  upon  it  with  the 
greatest  unction.  It  is  a  fact  —  a  creditable  and  glorious  fact 
—  that  New  England  has  contributed  many  thousands  of  its 
virile  youth  to  the  newer  sections  of  the  country,  and  has 
itself  lost  their  services  and  been  deprived  of  their  construc- 
tive work.  It  is  also  true  that  for  various  causes  there  are  in 
New  England  many  farms  that  have  become  "  abandoned," 
though  there  are  now  but  few  farms  that  are  fairly  to  be 
classed  as  abandoned  in  the  sense  in  which  that  term  is  used 
by  our  critics.  Many  causes  have  led  to  such  changes  as  have 
resulted  in  the  existence  of  unworked  farms,  and  but  a  very 
small  minority  of  these  causes  give  warrant  for  the  offensive 
conclusion  that  the  existence  of  these  dormant  farms  implies 
industrial  deterioration  as  a  decadent  condition  of  the  whole 
of  New  England.  New  England  is  the  oldest  agricultural  sec- 
tion of  the  country.  Its  original  farms  were  located  when  there 
was  no  general  knowledge  of  the  soil  and  climate,  and  no 
knowledge  of  social  and  industrial  conditions  as  they  might 
develop.  There  were  many  mistakes  in  judgment,  and  many 
due  to  lack  of  knowledge  of  the  conditions  that  have  since  de- 
veloped. The  migration  of  the  youth  of  New  England  toward 
the  west  led,  naturally  and  inevitably,  to  the  neglect  of  many 
farms,  and,  as  the  older  members  of  the  family  died  or  became 

[  15] 


New  England 

unable  to  work  the  land,  to  actual  abandonment,  though  the 
land  might  still  be  as  capable  of  profitable  working  as  ever. 
Those  farms  that  proved  to  have  been  unfortunately  located 
were  abandoned  for  economical  reasons.  A  few  families  disap- 
peared in  consequence  of  the  strain  of  trying  to  deal  with  ad- 
verse conditions.  Some  farmers  were  incapable  of  initiative, 
and  went  down  to  extinction  with  the  accumulating  conse- 
quences of  unwise  choice  of  farm  location.  The  very  fact  that 
the  lands  of  New  England  are  wonderfully  diversified  in  qual- 
ity and  wonderfully  varied  in  capacity  accounts  for  many  of 
the  inevitable  failures.  If  the  soil  of  this  section  was  of  a  pre- 
dictably uniform  character  it  is  evident  that  the  chances  for 
unwise  selection  and  disastrous  location  would  have  been  tre- 
mendously reduced,  and  therefore  a  quite  different  construc- 
tion placed  by  our  critics  upon  our  "  abandoned  farms  " 
problem.  The  early  settlers  farmed  for  the  purpose  of  secur- 
ing a  variety  of  crop  needed  for  the  consumption  of  the  family. 
As  soon  as  farming  began  to  become  a  business  of  raising 
produce  for  sale  the  problem  changed.  When  the  time  came 
for  specialization,  and  many  of  the  staples  had  to  compete 
with  the  rich  West,  there  was  another  and  more  vital  change 
in  New  England  conditions.  All  grains  became  unprofitable 
crops.  Even  corn  could  not  be  raised  as  cheaply  as  it  could 
be  bought.  Butter  became  unprofitable,  as  it  was  made  in  New 
England.  These  radical  changes  in  the  market  threw  many 
farmers  out  of  employment.  They  had  not  been  bred  broad 
enough  to  adapt  themselves  to  the  new  conditions.  Scientific 
agriculture  was  unknown.  The  market  for  milk,  and  many 
other  things  that  now  bring  the  farmers  much  money,  had  not 
developed.  The  natural,  the  inevitable,  the  economic,  result 
was  many  abandoned  farms.  But  it  was  not  essentially  a  New 
England  development.  It  affected  all  agricultural  sections.  It 
was  manifested  in  New  York,  and  the  effect  there  was  more 
severe  than  it  was  in  New  England ;  it  affected  Pennsylvania, 
and  it  spread  all  through  the  Middle  West.  Illinois,  Indiana, 
and  Iowa  suffered  severely.  There  were  great  numbers  of 
farms  abandoned  in  those  states,  and  in  other  states,  east  and 
west  of  the  Mississippi  river.  In  Nebraska  towns  were  aban- 

[  16] 


New  England 

doned.  It  is  reported  that  more  than  300  towns  in  that  state 
were  abandoned,  some  of  them  having  attained  to  a  popula- 
tion of  5000  or  more.  They  died  because,  for  one  good  reason 
or  another,  they  were  economic  failures,  exactly  as  some  New 
England  farms  have  been  discontinued.  But  the  record  of  New 
England  shrinks  to  very  modest  dimensions  when  compared 
with  the  loss  of  300  towns  in  one  western  state.  Those  towns 
were  never  resurrected,  while  most  of  the  "abandoned"  farms  of 
New  England  have  been  again  put  in  commission.  Conditions 
have  changed.  Knowledge  of  agriculture  has  spread  abroad. 
And,  what  is  probably  the  most  significant  cause,  there  has 
come  from  Europe  another  stream  of  Pilgrims  seeking  free- 
dom and  opportunity,  and  they  have  taken  many  of  the  un- 
worked  farms  and  made  them  profitable.  Today  the  "  aban- 
doned farm  "  in  New  England,  which  was  abandoned  because 
of  loss  of  racial  virility,  is  a  myth,  and,  considered  as  a  special 
New  England  reproach,  it  was  always  a  myth.  Practically  all 
of  these  unoccupied  farms  have  been  held  by  actual  owners, 
who  have  paid  taxes  on  them  and  held  them  for  some  satisfac- 
tory purpose.  The  time  has  not  yet  arrived  when  it  is  compe- 
tent for  a  critic  to  hold  that  because  property  is  not  earning 
dividends  which  seem  to  him  adequate  it  is  therefore  aban- 
doned. In  strictness,  an  abandoned  farm  is  one  that  has  re- 
verted to  the  state  on  account  of  long  continued  neglect  and 
non-payment  of  the  taxes  assessed  upon  it.  Of  these  there  are 
very  few  in  New  England,  and  have  never  been  more  than  a 
very  few. 

While  there  has  been  some  tendency  toward  the  diffusion 
of  some  of  the  New  England  manufacturing  over  other  sec- 
tions, there  has  been  healthy  growth  and  expansion,  and  there 
is  legitimate  opportunity  for  more.  There  are  certain  facts 
connected  with  the  general  question  of  manufacturing  which 
are  vital  but  which  have  not  been  given  quite  their  due  weight. 
It  is  becoming  increasingly  evident  that  the  labor  element  is 
a  fundamental  one  in  any  manufacturing  enterprise.  In  New 
England  there  are  several  lines  of  manufacture  that  have  been 
established  for  so  long  a  time  that  there  are  sections  which  have 
become  great  reservoirs  of  expert  workmen.  This  condition 

[  17  ] 


New  England 

does  not  yet  exist  in  any  other  large  section  of  the  country, 
except  in  a  limited  sense  and  with  reference  to  a  few  products. 
In  textiles,  shoes,  paper,  machinery,  tools  of  precision,  cut- 
lery, jewelry,  bookmaking,  and  many  other  lines,  we  have 
kept  the  lead.  It  is  not  to  boast  that  this  is  mentioned,  but  to 
point  out  that  there  are  in  New  England  such  unique  facili- 
ties for  manufacturing  extension  as  are  included  in  the  many 
localities  where  there  is  labor  skilled  in  certain  branches,  that 
has  been  acquiring  more  skill  and  increasing  in  numbers 
through  several  generations.  This  fact  cannot  be  equally  true 
of  any  other  section  in  this  country,  as  no  other  section  has 
been  for  so  long  a  time  raising  up  these  skilled  workmen. 
This  fact  of  the  supply  of  skilled  and  settled  workmen  in  vari- 
ous lines  is  a  great  manufacturing  asset,  and  it  is  being  justly 
appraised  and  will  be  fully  utilized. 

The  waterpowers  in  New  England  are  very  numerous,  and 
though  it  is  understood  that  in  certain  localities  they  have 
fallen  into  the  hands  of  companies  or  individuals  that  intend 
to  speculate  with  them  there  are  still  many  available  opportu- 
nities for  large  installations  of  power-producing  plants.  The 
opportunities  for  smaller  plants,  suitable  for  producing  power 
for  smaller  concerns  or  for  lighting  towns,  are  many,  and 
they  are  attracting  the  attention  of  men  who  will  eventually 
utilize  them.  Not  long  ago  a  scientific  lecturer  declared,  in  an 
address  before  the  American  Institute  of  Electrical  Engineers, 
that  "  in  the  single  state  of  Massachusetts  more  waterpower 
goes  to  waste  annually  than  is  found  in  Niagara  itself."  Sub- 
sequent investigation  has  shown  that  he  greatly  understated 
the  matter.  In  Maine  there  is  more  undeveloped  waterpower 
than  in  any  other  state  in  the  Union,  and  in  each  of  the  other 
New  England  states  there  is  so  much  waterpower  which  is  not 
in  use  that  it  may  not  be  exaggeration  to  assume  that  in  the 
entire  region  there  is  enough  potential  waterpower  ready  to 
be  harnessed  to  industry  to  light  all  of  the  New  England 
states,  make  power  for  all  their  factories,  and  operate  all  their 
railroads.  Nearly  all  of  the  rivers  and  streams  have  been  made 
to  yield  their  power  to  industry,  and  many  of  the  water  rights 
not  utilized  have  been  jealously  claimed  and  guarded  by  legal 

[    18  ] 


New  England 

process.  The  Massachusetts  supreme  court  records  are  loaded 
with  decisions  defining  water  rights,  as  are  those  of  New 
Hampshire,  Vermont,  and  Maine.  Big  companies  own  many 
of  the  larger  privileges,  and  of  late  some  of  the  rivers  and 
streams  have  been  bought  up  from  source  to  outlet  by  specu- 
lative interests.  Yet  there  are  many  opportunities  not  secured, 
so  many  that  the  aggregate  is  almost  unbelievable.  Nor  does 
the  opportunity  stop  at  the  enumeration  of  waterpower  privi- 
leges, large  and  small,  wholly  unutilized.  Many  of  those  that 
are  utilized,  up  to  the  limit  of  availability  at  the  time  they 
were  put  in  service,  might  now  be  made  to  yield  100  percent 
more  power.  Few  of  the  millwheels  now  yielding  15  horsepower 
but  might  be  made  to  yield  30,  under  the  right  conditions. 

The  Blackstone  river,  flowing  from  Worcester,  Massachu- 
setts, to  Narragansett  Bay  in  Rhode  Island,  is  perhaps  the 
best  harnessed  river  in  the  United  States.  Its  banks  are  loaded 
with  more  than  100  mills.  It  is  45  miles  long.  Its  value,  in 
waterpower  used,  figured  on  a  coal  basis,  is  reckoned  at  $25,- 
000,000.  That  is  to  say,  the  work  that  the  river  does  if  done 
by  coal  would  cost  4  percent  of  something  over  $25,000,000. 
Most  of  these  mills  use  the  waterpower  to  supplement  steam, 
having  become  so  large  that  the  waterpower,  as  it  is  utilized, 
does  not  give  them  power  enough.  Waterpower  being  so  much 
cheaper  than  steam  it  would  naturally  be  supposed  that  it 
would  be  utilized  to  near  100  percent  of  possibility.  An  en- 
gineer who  has  made  a  life  study  of  Rhode  Island  streams 
states  that  not  less  than  half  of  the  water  of  the  Blackstone 
goes  to  waste  in  ordinary  times,  and  that  many  times  its  poten- 
tial power  goes  to  waste  in  times  of  freshet.  The  ordinary  half 
loss  occurs  nights  and  holidays,  for  lack  of  storage  facilities. 
Figure  the  actual  power  of  this  river  for  a  whole  year  and  de- 
duct the  power  utilized  and  it  would  appear  that  the  best- 
harnessed  river  in  America  is  so  poorly  harnessed  that  the 
vast  proportion  of  its  potential  power  flows  idly  into  the  ocean. 
The  full  significance  of  this  fact  is  known  and  appreciated  by 
the  mill  owners.  They  have  plans  and  surveys  made  for  great 
reservoirs  on  some  of  the  Blackstone's  tributaries  to  store 
freshet  water  to  give  their  power  plants  more  capacity.  Even 

[  19] 


New  England 

this  expedient  will  conserve  but  a  moiety  of  the  lost  power. 
That  would  involve  an  industrial  revolution  of  great  magni- 
tude —  the  adoption  of  such  drastic  intensive  methods  as  the 
operation  of  plants  during  the  whole  24  hours  of  the  day. 

Another  example,  by  way  of  illustration,  is  the  Deerfield 
river,  in  western  Massachusetts  and  Vermont,  which  has  a 
total  fall  from  source  to  mouth  of  1162  feet.  Its  least  dis- 
charge during  the  three  summer  months  is  500  cubic  feet  per 
second.  During  the  spring  freshets  this  discharge  rises  to 
28,000  cubic  feet  per  second,  56  times  the  summer  normal 
amount.  But  15  per  cent  of  the  normal  flow  is  utilized.  This 
is  a  pretty  busy  river,  but  it  is  seen  that  only  a  little  more 
than  .02  per  cent  of  its  potential  power  is  used.  The  possible 
use  is  not  represented  by  this  view,  since  there  are  many  good 
dam  sites  not  now  in  use,  giving  opportunity  many  times  to 
multiply  the  gross  power  that  may  be  utilized. 

These  examples,  drawn  from  busy  streams,  give  faint  con- 
ception of  the  enormous  possibilities  afforded  New  England 
manufacturing  enterprise  by  the  unused  waterpower  in  the 
six  states.  To  express  that  opportunity  in  figures  would  be  to 
dazzle  the  intellect.  For  all  practical  purposes  it  is  illimitable. 

Careful  examination  of  many  lines  of  business  reveals  a  con- 
dition much  like  that  which  has  been  indicated  in  the  frag- 
mentary manner  of  the  preceding  pages.  Some  of  the  grounds 
for  the  attitude  of  the  New  England  optimists  will  be  more 
specifically  stated  in  succeeding  pages. 

It  is  not  possible  to  neglect  that  which  is  one  of  the  vital 
and  effective  agencies  in  the  building  of  this  section,  the  matter 
of  education.  Not,  let  us  understand,  the  schools  as  schools, 
nor  the  work  of  the  professional  educators,  as  educators ;  but, 
if  we  can  grasp  a  thing  so  intangible,  the  growth  in  the  minds 
of  men  of  that  impulse  making  for  progress  which  is  the  real 
power  behind  whatever  of  progress  it  is  possible  to  record  or 
to  hope  for.  Wherever  one  goes  in  New  England,  with  an  open 
mind,  there  are  found  many  concrete  examples  of  the  workings 
of  the  new  spirit  which  is  transforming  the  whole  region  from 
whatever  it  was  in  the  way  of  conservatism  and  stagnation 
toward  whatever  the  optimistic  estimate  of  its  future  may  be. 

[  20  ] 


New  England 

It  is  characteristic  of  New  England  temperament,  ancestry, 
and  historic  inclination,  that  when  the  impulse  of  progress  at- 
tacks its  men  they  should  seek  first  to  instil  the  principles  of 
the  mental  attitude  which  must  furnish  the  motor  force  for  the 
realization  of  the  new  conception  of  industrial  progress,  to 
infuse  into  the  people  the  cultivation  necessary  for  the  proper 
development  of  the  new  spirit  in  business.  This  is  an  uncon- 
scious motive,  an  instinctive  reliance  upon  character  and  breed- 
ing, which  has  come  into  its  expression  without  direct  plan  or 
specific  attempt  to  correlate  it  with  the  hoped-for  material 
progress.  It  is  the  racial  habit  of  New  Englanders  to  appeal 
to  associated  and  communistic  effort,  and  the  developmental 
movement  that  is  so  evident  in  every  part  of  the  country  is 
working  here  in  New  England  in  a  manner  which  bids  fair  to 
direct  expression  through  a  peculiar  but  intensely  practical 
mutualism  which  has  for  its  object  the  improvement  of  civic 
life  and  the  development  of  business.  This  is  everywhere  in 
evidence.  There  is  scarcely  a  town  or  village,  or  agricultural 
district,  within  which  there  may  not  be  found  some  sort  of  or- 
ganized effort  to  better  actual  conditions  and  promote  busi- 
ness. These  organizations  differ  in  form,  in  stated  purpose,  in 
method  of  work,  but  they  are  one  and  all  trying  to  accomplish 
the  general  purpose  of  definite  betterment  through  coopera- 
tive work,  through  the  device  of  federating  the  individual  con- 
ception of  the  newer  conditions  and  the  individual  desire  to 
take  the  fullest  advantage  of  the  benefits  offered  to  industry 
through  the  recent  revelations  of  agricultural  and  industrial 
research  and  the  tremendous  growth  of  the  markets.  In  some 
of  the  cities  and  towns  there  are  boards  of  trade,  chambers  of 
commerce,  commercial  clubs,  publicity  clubs,  or  associations 
bearing  other  names  but  identical  in  purpose.  In  others  there 
are  men's  church  clubs  or  distinctive  civic  clubs.  In  many  towns 
there  are  no  clubs  or  organizations,  but  there  the  spirit  is  at 
work  through  some  one  vital  citizen  or  group  of  citizens,  and 
not  infrequently  through  the  town  government  itself.  The 
churches  are  yielding  to  the  spirit  of  physical  and  business 
betterment,  and  it  is  not  unusual  to  find  them  systematically 
studying  the  questions  connected  with  the  betterment  of  their 


New  England 

towns  in  their  Bible  classes,  their  week-day  meetings,  and  in 
other  ways.  The  public  schools  are  seething  with  the  spirit, 
and  in  many  of  them  it  goes  so  far  as  to  organize  the  pupils  into 
miniature  civic  clubs  through  which  the  whole  theory  and  prac- 
tise of  municipal  government  and  development  is  taught.  All 
over  New  England  there  are  special  schools  for  the  teaching 
of  specific  trades  and  industries,  and  the  towns  and  cities  are 
more  interested  now  in  the  study  and  development  of  voca- 
tional training  than  with  any  other  phase  of  the  educational 
problem;  and  everywhere  that  there  is  attempt  toward  voca- 
tional training  there  is  the  coincident  attempt  to  turn  that 
training  to  the  specific  advantage  of  the  local  industries.  This 
is  especially  true  of  the  agricultural  colleges,  high  schools,  ex- 
periment stations,  and  the  work  of  the  Grange  and  the  agri- 
cultural and  horticultural  societies,  many  of  which  have  the 
aid  and  countenance  of  state  governments.  The  work  being 
done  by  these  agencies  for  agricultural  education  and  training 
is  of  vastly  more  importance  and  significance  than  is  generally 
understood.  They  are  reconstructing  the  industries  connected 
with  the  land,  and  spurring  and  fostering  individual  initiative 
and  enterprise  in  a  manner  at  once  astonishing  and  gratifying. 
They  are  inspiring  and  directing  a  very  marked  movement  of 
private  capital  toward  the  business  development  of  the  land. 
Everywhere  business  men  are  using  their  spare  capital  in  buy- 
ing and  developing  farms.  It  is  exceptional  to  sit  at  a  country 
hotel  breakfast  table  and  not  hear  some  man  relate  his  experi- 
ence with  this  fascinating  business.  It  is  talked  in  Pullman 
smokers,  and  wherever  men  gather. 

And  it  is  not  altogether  the  farm  that  attracts  the  business 
men  toward  the  natural  resources  of  New  England.  They  are 
taking  up  the  study  of  the  waterpower  wealth  that  lies  invit- 
ingly half  developed  all  over  our  hills  and  valleys.  "  A  few  of 
us  have  bought  up  the  river  for  the  ten  miles  nearest  our 
town  "  is  a  remark  often  dropped  by  the  busy  lawyer  "  on  cir- 
cuit," or  something  like  it  by  some  busy  man  of  affairs.  So 
also  of  other  natural  business  opportunities,  and  opportunities 
for  manufacturing.  The  minds  of  the  live  New  England  men 

[22] 


New  England 

are  turned  toward  development  in  New  England  as  they  have 
never  before  been  inclined  during  the  whole  of  our  history,  and 
the  visible  fruits  of  this  tendency  are  beginning  to  be  very 
much  in  evidence. 

One  of  the  greatest  natural  assets  of  New  England  is  its 
adaptability  for  summer  residence.  This  is  not  a  newly  discov- 
ered asset,  but  it  is  evident  that  it  is  to  be  promoted  in  a  new 
and  better  way,  and  that  the  development  is  to  be  along  lines 
not  until  recently  developed.  The  areas  especially  adapted  for 
summer  residence  have  not  been  utilized  to  the  extent  of  10 
percent,  probably  not  to  the  extent  of  1  percent.  In  this  par- 
ticular New  England  has  no  rival  in  America.  Whatever  may 
be  said  of  other  regions,  and  there  are  several  regions  that 
present  very  great  summer-resort  attractiveness,  there  are  no 
sections  that  in  any  sense  compete  with  New  England.  Its  of- 
ferings are  unique.  Therefore  the  lines  along  which  their  devel- 
opment should  proceed  shouid  also  be  unique.  There  is  nothing 
in  the  way  of  New  England's  assets  which  would  be  likely  to 
respond  so  readily  and  generously  to  the  proper  promotive 
treatment  as  the  summer-resort  business.  It  is  large,  and  it  is 
unique,  but  it  is  to  be  said  that  it  now  exhibits  the  need  of  new 
methods  and  different  conduct.  Many  causes  have  operated  to 
change  its  character  within  the  past  few  years,  and  none  more 
than  the  rise  of  the  automobile.  The  managers  of  the  railroad 
doing  the  bulk  of  the  summer-resort  business  in  New  England 
assert  that  at  some  points  as  many  as  from  60  to  70  percent 
of  the  visitors  arrive  in  their  own  motor  cars.  This  fact  is 
significant  of  the  situation.  The  motor  car  promotes  flexibility 
in  summer  resorting.  It  makes  frequent  change  not  only  pos- 
sible and  easy  but  almost  inevitable.  Many  of  the  resort  houses 
have  become  of  indifferent  quality  through  wear  and  tear  and 
the  rise  of  new  demands.  The  present  day  resorter  is  not  in- 
clined to  accept  that  which  he  once  was  satisfied  with,  in  room 
or  table  accommodations.  A  too  large  proportion  of  the  sum- 
mer hotels  have  not  kept  up  with  the  times.  They  should  be 
rebuilt  and  their  menus  should  be  radically  reformed.  There 
is  a  decided  tendency  also  to  look  with  less  favor  upon  the  re- 
sorts that  are  located  remote  from  lines  of  travel  and  towns. 

[23] 


New  England 

The  auto  has  brought  this  about  also.  Whereas  in  the  old 
days,  when  it  was  necessary  to  rely  upon  the  horse  for  local 
travel,  people  resigned  themselves  to  isolation  for  the  sake  of 
being  near  the  mountains  or  the  fine  beaches,  they  are  now  less 
inclined  to  do  so.  The  motor  car  has  changed  that.  Now  re- 
sorters  may  locate  where  they  can  have  the  benefit  of  the  facili- 
ties of  a  town  and  also  place  themselves  in  daily  touch  with 
the  natural  beauties  of  all  the  country  within  a  radius  of  50 
miles,  or  even  more.  So  the  towns  in  the  vicinity  of  resort  areas 
are  likely  to  be  given  more  consideration.  This  is  a  mere  detail 
of  reconstruction.  The  great  fact  is  that  the  mountain  and 
seacoast  regions  in  New  England  are  for  it  an  asset  of  the 
greatest  value,  actual  and  potential,  and  there  are  plenty  of 
indications  that  they  are  to  be  intelligently  developed. 

No  competent  estimate  of  the  money  value  of  the  summer 
business  in  New  England  has  been  made,  and  it  is  difficult  to 
make  even  an  intelligent  guess.  If  we  were  to  estimate  that  not 
less  than  50,000  people  go  to  the  White  Mountain  region  in 
New  Hampshire,  each  season,  for  a  stay  of  a  week  or  longer, 
we  would  probably  be  guessing  well  under  the  fact.  But  50,000 
people  staying  a  week  or  more  must  of  necessity  expend  more 
than  $5,000,000.  Probably  the  facts  are  that  there  are  many 
more  than  that  number  in  the  White  Mountain  region  every 
season  who  stay  a  week  or  more,  and  probably  they  average 
to  spend  more  than  $100  for  their  holiday.  And  the  White 
Mountains  form  only  one  of  several  mountain  regions,  while 
there  are  the  seashore  resorts  and  the  innumerable  other  sum- 
mer outing  places  to  be  considered,  as  well  as  the  thousands  of 
people  who  go  here  and  there,  attracted  by  personal  inclina- 
tion, kinship,  memory  of  youthful  days,  or  some  other  reason. 
It  has  been  the  rule  for  several  years  that  resort  regions  have 
reported  unsatisfactory  business,  mountain  and  seashore  alike. 
Yet  the  people  continue  to  visit  them,  and  in  increasing  num- 
bers. The  reports  of  failing  business  come  from  the  hotels 
whose  managers  have  not  realized  the  change  that  is  coming 
over  their  business  in  consequence  of  the  automobiles  and  the 
disposition  to  seek  for  distinctive  and  personal  facilities. 
Ownership  of  country  places  has  been  an  element  that  has 

[25] 


New  England 

drawn  from  the  hotels  and  at  the  same  time  given  a  permanent 
character  to  resort  regions.  A  great  many  men  have  purchased 
places  and  improved  them  with  houses  ranging  from  simple 
and  inexpensive  summer  cottages  to  costly  and  elaborate  coun- 
try residences.  The  extent  to  which  this  movement  has  attained 
cannot  be  realized  except  by  going  through  the  resort  sections 
and  noting  the  succession  of  individually  owned  estates.  This 
feature  of  summer  life  is  spread  all  over  New  England.  There 
are  few  towns,  having  any  pretensions  to  beauty  or  attractions 
of  climate,  which  do  not  boast  of  from  one  to  a  score  of  sum- 
mer places.  And  this  disposition  is  becoming  more  and  more 
manifest  as  time  goes  on.  It  is  stimulated  by  the  return-to-the- 
land  sentiment.  The  thrifty  town  dweller  unites  the  resort  idea 
with  the  scheme  to  build  up  a  good  farm  as  a  property  propo- 
sition, and  while  he  and  his  family  are  enjoying  the  country 
air  they  are  at  the  same  time  looking  after  crops  that  are  to 
furnish  their  table  during  the  coming  winter  with  fresh  vege- 
tables, and  often  with  eggs,  poultry  and  pork.  The  facts  of 
the  resort  situation  give,  therefore,  no  ground  for  concern  on 
the  part  of  the  well-wisher  of  New  England.  The  shadow  that 
rests  upon  it,  if  indeed  there  is  a  shadow,  is  a  question  of  en- 
terprise and  expediency  for  the  hotel  and  transportation  men 
to  deal  with.  Broadly  considered,  the  summer  resort  business 
is  every  year  becoming  more  of  a  factor  in  the  prosperity  of 
New  England,  and  if  it  is  also  becoming  more  of  a  business 
proposition  for  the  visitors,  that  is  a  matter  for  rejoicing. 
Every  man  who  buys  a  farm  for  the  purpose  of  having  a  sum- 
mer home  in  New  England,  wherever  his  business  may  be 
located  or  wherever  his  winter  home  may  be,  becomes  more  of 
a  New  Englander  than  anything  else,  and  may  be  depended 
upon  to  boost  New  England  to  the  extent  of  his  ability  and 
equivalent  to  his  satisfaction  with  the  New  England  climate 
and  character  as  he  sees  and  experiences  them. 

New  England  has  been  the  nursery  of  literature,  art,  and 
music,  in  America,  and  remains  such.  It  is  no  special  merit 
that  these  arts  began  here,  since  the  country  began  here,  but 
it  is  notable  that  they  persist  here  in  as  strong  and  virile  ini- 
tiative as  ever.  It  is  sometimes  asserted  that  literature  has  de- 

[26] 


New  England 

serted  New  England  for  New  York,  and  even  for  Indiana  or 
California.  There  is  not  the  shadow  of  plausibility  in  the  sug- 
gestion. That  other  sections  of  the  land  have  bred  writers,  that 
the  business  of  distribution  of  books  has  been  divided  with 
New  York,  matters  not  in  the  least  when  we  are  considering 
the  maintenance  of  standards  and  quality  in  New  England. 
That  we  have  lost  in  literature  in  a  proportional  sense  is  true, 
and  none  have  more  pride  in  that  fact  than  we.  The  other  sec- 
tions have  advanced  to  that  degree  that  they  are  now  pro- 
ducers, and  their  ratio  of  advance  is  reckoned  from  the  zero 
they  registered  only  some  few  tens  of  years  since.  The  literary 
manifestations  everywhere  except  in  New  England  have  been 
sporadic.  Even  in  New  York  there  is  but  little  literary  pro- 
ductiveness which  did  not  migrate  there  from  New  England, 
directly  or  through  one  or  more  ancestral  generations.  Yet  we 
are  not  insistent  upon  our  absolute  rights  in  this.  We  glory  in 
the  growth  of  literature,  music,  and  art,  in  all  the  country, 
and  insist  upon  no  more  credit  than  acknowledges  our  ability 
and  constant  desire  to  maintain  our  historic  standards.  Bos- 
ton, let  us  assert,  remains  the  literary  and  bookmaking  city  of 
the  land,  while  New  York  has  become  the  bookselling  head- 
quarters and  has  induced  many  writers  from  all  sections  to 
locate  and  prosecute  their  vocation  there.  From  Boston  there 
flows  a  constant  stream  of  the  best  books  produced  in  the 
world,  and  from  Boston  the  best,  and  the  only,  strictly  literary 
monthly  magazine  continues  to  be  published.  While  there  may 
be  some  question  about  the  bulk  of  educational  books,  whether 
it  is  greater  in  Boston  or  elsewhere,  it  is  certain  that  from 
Boston  there  is  sent  out  the  larger  proportion  of  educational 
books  that  are  strictly  consequential.  When  it  comes  to  the 
matter  of  manufacturing  books  Boston  takes  the  lead.  It  has 
the  three  concerns  which  are  more  notable  than  any  others, 
both  as  to  the  quality  and  as  to  the  bulk  of  their  product ;  and 
it  has  half  a  dozen  others  that  are  second  in  rank  only  as  to 
their  volume  of  output.  It  has  the  distinction  of  being  the 
home  of  the  best  commercial  and  de  luxe  bookmakers  in  the 
world,  and  of  producing  the  finest  books  marketed  anywhere. 
In  music  Boston  has  the  most  notable  orchestra  in  the  world, 

[27] 


New  England 

and  the  most  deserving  music  school.  It  has  the  second  largest 
musical  merchandize  house  in  the  country,  which  is  also  prob- 
ably the  most  prolific  publisher  of  music.  Boston,  and  in  lesser 
degree  New  England,  is  permeated  with  music  in  its  most  ar- 
tistic and  delightful  manifestations.  It  is  the  original  home  of 
the  chamber  concert,  and  during  the  season  the  events  are  so 
numerous  that  the  devotee  is  obliged  to  exercise  rigid  selection. 
Barring  grand  opera,  it  is  not  too  much  to  claim  for  Boston 
that  out  of  it  comes  at  least  three-quarters  of  whatever  is  of 
real  worth  in  music,  and  that  it  produces  more  good  music 
every  season  than  any  other  city  in  America.  This  is  not  be- 
cause there  is  any  conscious  attempt  to  make  of  the  city  a 
musical  Mecca,  but  that  the  people  demand  the  service  of 
melody  that  is  always  being  served  up  to  them. 

In  art,  it  is  more  the  appreciative  faculty  that  guages  a 
people.  Artists  are  so  few  that  it  is  never  just  to  assert  that 
this  region  or  that  is  the  more  prone  to  produce  them.  It  is  the 
region  that  knows  and  possesses  art  that  is  the  artistic  region. 
New  England  has  produced  its  quota  of  artists,  and  it  pos- 
sesses its  proportion  of  works  of  art.  That  its  people  are,  as 
a  class,  artistic,  it  would  be  folly  to  assert.  No  people  are  ar- 
tistic. It  is  only  the  slender  proportion  who  are  capable  even 
of  feeling  the  meaning  of  art.  New  England  has  its  proportion 
of  these  artistically  inclined  people,  possibly  more  than  its 
numerical  proportion,  and  it  has  many  industries  that  are 
reckoned  producers  of  works  of  art.  It  has  the  most  notable 
museum  of  art  in  America,  and  it  is  utilized  by  the  people. 
New  England  lends  itself  to  the  cultivation  and  propagation 
of  esthetics,  naturally,  historically,  climatically,  educationally, 
and  racially.  To  these  states  come  the  men  who  write,  the  men 
and  women  who  paint,  those  who  wish  to  become  finished  musi- 
cians. To  these  states  come  those  who  wish  to  live  within  the 
zone  of  the  best  development  of  literature,  music,  and  art,  in 
America.  We  welcome  them,  but  we  do  not  so  much  glory  in 
the  fact  that  they  come  as  in  the  fact  that  New  England  is 
such  as  to  invite  them  —  not  indeed  specifically  because  of 
those  returning  pilgrims  so  much  as  because  of  those  who  arc 
and  have  always  been  with  us,  and  must  here  remain.  It  is  that 

[28] 


New  England 

these  ameliorations  of  life  are  so  free  in  New  England  as  to  be 
the  common  possession  of  all,  and  that  they  owe  their  existence 
to  the  tastes  and  requirements  of  the  great  bulk  of  the  people. 
It  is  that  New  England,  as  a  definite  section,  is  literary,  mu- 
sical, and  artistic,  that  gives  the  prevalence  of  those  arts  their 
vogue  here.  That  this  is  so  is  indicative  of  the  nature  of  the 
people,  and  has  an  important  bearing  upon  their  ability  and 
capacity  in  business.  New  England  thrift  is  manifested  even 
in  the  esthetic  development  of  the  people,  and  manifested  in  the 
true  New  England  manner. 

There  is  reasonable  ground  of  justification  of  the  belief  that 
New  England  is  about  entering  upon  a  new  era  in  its  history, 
so  far  as  its  material  development  is  concerned,  and  that  a 
great  industrial  future  is  rapidly  taking  shape.  Many  of  the 
elements  that  have  tended  to  keep  it  in  the  conservative  atmos- 
phere of  the  past  are  also  of  the  past,  and  the  constructive  and 
pioneer  spirit  of  the  Pilgrims  bids  fair  to  resume  its  influence 
under  the  newer  conditions.  It  is  fair  to  assume  that  New  Eng- 
land is  to  show  that  growth  which  comes  from  initiative  and 
knowledge  of  new  business  conditions,  put  into  practical  opera- 
tion by  enterprise  attracted  by  opportunity.  It  is  not  longer 
destined  to  be  content  with  the  residuum  of  its  best  human 
product,  while  the  vigorous  proportion  is  drafted  to  develop 
other  sections  of  the  country.  That  there  is  a  decided  drift  of 
enterprise  to  New  England  is  the  most  hopeful  sign  now  ap- 
parent. The  men  of  New  England  have  always  been  its 
greatest  asset,  and  the  greatest  asset  of  the  nation.  Now  it  is 
apparent  that  the  keen-eyed  and  restless  enterprise  of  the  men 
of  America  has  convinced  them  that  there  is  a  field  for  them  in 
New  England,  and  we  find  men  turning  to  this  section  because 
they  perceive  that  here  there  is  a  fair  chance  to  reap  the  large 
rewards  they  seek.  A  study  of  conditions  and  tendencies  in 
New  England  reveals  a  strong  probability  that  the  men  of  the 
six  states  are  justified  in  expecting  that  all  of  the  great  staple 
industries  will  greatly  increase  in  production,  and  that  busi- 
ness and  wealth  will  multiply  themselves.  While  the  market  will 
continue  to  demand  greater  supplies,  it  is  evident  that  now 
there  is  an  outlet  in  New  England  for  greatly  increased  New 

[29] 


New  England 

England  production.  In  some  lines  of  produce  our  markets  are 
supplied  with  but  a  fraction  of  the  demand  from  our  own  pro- 
duction. New  England  should  produce,  for  example,  poultry 
and  eggs  for  shipment  to  other  sections,  being  admirably 
adapted  for  that  business,  whereas  it  actually  does  produce 
but  about  one-fifth  of  its  own  consumption ;  and  something 
comparable  to  this  is  the  fact  in  many  other  lines  of  produc- 
tion. The  hopeful  consideration  is  that  New  England  people 
are  now  awake  to  this  condition,  and  are  busy  remedying  it, 


A  NEW  ENGLAND  TOWN  HALL 

or  preparing  to  remedy  it.  New  England  is  industrially  in 
much  the  condition  the  Middle  West  was  after  the  war  of  re- 
bellion —  a  fertile  and  inviting  field  for  pioneer  enterprise ; 
and  that  fact  has  come  already  to  be  so  well  established  that 
there  is  a  tide  of  immigration  setting  into  New  England  from 
other  sections  of  the  country,  which  is  supplementing  the  gain 
through  the  check  to  emigration  and  joining  with  those  of  our 
own  sons  who  are  turning  to  the  home  opportunities  for  their 
careers  and  their  prosperity.  New  England  is  thus  receiving 
that  infusion  of  vigor  it  has  long  needed,  and  is  already  re- 
sponding to  the  stimulus. 

New  England  is  also  receiving  treatment  conducive  to  its 
betterment  in  the  way  of  publicity  of  the  right  kind.  The 
people  are  being  told  of  the  new  possibilities  for  enterprise, 

[30] 


New  England 

and  their  faith  in  the  section  as  a  promising  field  for  profit- 
able enterprise  is  mounting.  We  are  being  told  what  can  be 
done,  in  the  way  of  money-making  in  agriculture,  and  we  are 
referred  to  specific  examples.  We  are  assured,  by  coldly- 
figured  reports  of  actual  accomplishment,  that  great  dividends 
may  be  made  in  apple-raising,  in  raising  peaches  and  plums, 
in  potato-raising,  in  sheep-raising,  in  hay-raising,  in  small 
fruits,  in  gardening,  in  stock  farming,  in  hog-raising,  in  poul- 
try-raising, in  timber-growing,  and  in  other  specialization  in 
crops.  In  many  of  these  lines  we  know  there  is  being  more 
money  made  than  is  made  in  manufacturing  —  a  much  larger 
percentage  of  profit  and  smaller  percentage  of  risk.  And  we 
also  know  that  in  many  lines  of  manufacturing  the  new  oppor- 
tunities that  have  opened  for  New  England  are  being  utilized 
with  great  profit.  This  knowledge  is  making  it  evident  to  the 
observing  that  New  England  is  just  looking  through  the  door 
to  a  wonderfully .  bright  future.  We  can  see  that  trade  and 
manufacturing  and  agricultural  tendencies  are  gathering  a 
momentum  which  is  carrying  us  swiftly  and  surely  toward  an 
industrial  future  which  will  double  and  treble  and  quadruple 
our  output  of  staples.  It  is  not  simply  a  hope ;  it  is  cold  calcu- 
lation based  upon  actual  progress,  and  the  sordid  observance 
of  tendencies  manifested  in  terms  of  performance.  We  are  now 
doing  those  things  which  are  to  produce  the  enlarged  condi- 
tions we  foresee.  We  have  not  been  too  prone  to  see  these  signs 
of  promise.  We  have  been  obsessed  with  the  stale  idea  that  New 
England  was  a  sucked  orange,  with  respect  to  its  human  en- 
terprise and  its  opportunity.  We  have  not  taken  the  pains  to 
look  into  the  matter.  Now  there  has  arisen  in  the  economy  of 
the  world  a  great  need  for  the  latent  wealth  of  New  England, 
and  along  with  this  need  has  come  the  new  methods  and  pro- 
cesses that  enable  that  power  to  be  utilized;  and  there  has 
come  into  the  minds  of  men  the  vision  and  the  prevision  neces- 
sary to  turn  the  latent  wealth  into  supplies  for  the  new 
needs. 


[31  ] 


The  Charm  of  New  England 

WITH  the  New  Englander,  resident,  expatriate,  or  descend- 
ant, the  charm  of  New  England  does  not  have  to  be  stated. 
It  is  chiefly  quality  rather  than  condition,  and  does  not  come 
easily  within  the  limits  of  spoken  or  written  words.  Physically, 
it  ministers  to  that  love  of  variety  in  beauty  which  is  im- 
planted in  people,  and  is  stronger  with  those  who  are  not  con- 
scious lovers  of  that  in  beauty  which  most  readily  lends  itself 
to  artistic  analysis  and  statement.  The  natural  attractiveness 
of  New  England  is  of  that  order  which  appeals  to  our  instinct 
for  beauty.  The  mountains,  the  forests,  the  rivers  and  their 
valleys,  the  lakes,  the  conformation  of  the  land  everywhere,  the 
seashore,  the  eastern  background  of  the  illimitable  and  myste- 
rious ocean,  the  capricious,  but  mostly  charming  and  always 
health-giving,  climate,  tell  their  own  story  and  make  their  own 
appeal.  They  require  no  sophistication,  they  admit  of  no  for- 
malization  or  artistic  setting  devised  by  man,  they  need  none 
of  the  terms  of  art  in  description,  nor  any  artistic  knowledge 
for  appreciation.  They  are,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  indescrib- 
able. He  who  attempts  to  portray  them  in  words  falls  into  a 
slough  of  verbiage  and  flounders  in  a  pit  of  vain  attempt.  The 
scenery  in  New  England  embraces  examples  of  about  every 
variety  that  has  ever  charmed  beholders,  from  the  grandeur  of 
the  mountains  of  New  Hampshire  and  Vermont  and  Maine  to 
the  pastoral  beauty  of  the  stretches  of  the  fertile  valley  of  the 
Connecticut,  and  from  the  placid  lullabies  of  the  long  reaches 
of  sandy  beach  on  the  shores  of  Long  Island  sound  to  the  tur- 
bid grandeur  of  the  tumultuous  sea  along  the  craggy  coast  of 
Maine.  There  may  be,  somewhere  in  the  world,  varieties  of 
scenery  which  are  not  found  in  New  England ;  there  may  some- 
where be  beauties  of  seashore  which  are  not  duplicated  some- 
where along  our  coast  line ;  there  may  be  more  peaceful  and 
fertile  valleys,  and  more  picturesque  farming  lands ;  but  they 

f  32  1 


The  Charm  of  New  England 

have  not  been  brought  to  the  attention  of  the  world.  We  make 
no  claim  to  excess  of  size,  dominating  heighth  of  mountains, 
awesome  depth  and  extent  of  canons,  world-beating  capacity 
of  harbors.  We  are  speaking  of  that  quality  in  these  manifes- 
tations of  nature  which  gives  great  and  lasting  pleasure  to  the 
beholders.  New  England  is,  in  this  respect,  the  world  in  rep- 
lica, sometimes  in  comparative  miniature.  Yet  its  extent  is  as 
large  as  the  mind  can  compass.  It  does  not  inspire  with  awe, 
and  daunt  the  imagination.  It  pleases  the  esthetic  senses  and 
it  gladdens  the  heart.  Its  mountains  and  seashores  give  health. 
Its  valleys  give  wealth.  Its  streams  are  lovely,  and  they  turn 
millions  of  mill-wheels.  Its  acres  are  beautiful,  while  they  yield 
bountifully  at  the  behest  of  the  wise  and  industrious  husband- 
men. Nature  in  New  England  is  a  perpetual  inspiration.  She 
exacts  labor  for  her  fruits,  but  she  gives  freely  of  her  abund- 
ant beauty. 

The  beauty  of  nature  is  one  of  the  leading  assets  of  New 
England  —  a  charm  that  pays  large  dividends.  Not  only  does 
it  promote  an  enormous  summer-resort  business,  which  brings 
to  us  many  millions  of  dollars  each  summer,  but  it  adds  an  ap- 
preciable value  to  every  man  who  lives  within  our  borders.  The 
farmer  is  a  better  farmer  for  the  influence  of  the  mountain 
which  may  bound  his  view  in  some  direction ;  or  for  the  lake  to 
which  he  may  resort  for  fishing,  rowing  or  bathing ;  or  for  the 
river  that  meanders  through  his  farm ;  and  his  farm  itself  is 
likely  to  be  a  Corot  picture  if  located  in  one  of  the  valleys,  or 
a  scene  fit  for  a  painter  of  mountain  views.  Likewise,  many  of 
the  manufacturing  cities  and  towns  are  located  in  the  midst  of 
interesting  scenery  where  it  is  possible  for  the  operatives  to  be 
under  the  constant  influence  of  Nature  in  her  most  ameliorat- 
ing moods.  It  is  no  more  than  a  short  trip  from  any  of  the 
New  England  cities  into  the  midst  of  scenery  which  cannot  be 
surpassed  for  placid  or  grand  beauty.  This  has  its  effect  upon 
character,  and  to  it  is  to  be  ascribed  at  least  a  moiety  of  the 
quality  of  New  England  and  New  England  people. 

Other  sections  of  the  country  boast  of  one  or  two  good 
things,  in  the  way  of  natural  charm,  but  New  England  can 
scarcely  catalogue  all  hers.  California  has  sunshine  and  a 

[  33  ] 


New  England 

background  of  blue  mountain  chains.  Florida  has  summer  tem- 
perature in  winter.  The  Middle  West  has  the  effect  of  limit- 
less space.  The  Rocky  Mountain  region  has  terrific  mountain 
scenery.  Minnesota  and  Wisconsin  have  their  thousands  of 
lakes.  Arizona  has  the  Grand  Canon.  And  other  places  have 
their  peculiar  charms  and  advantages.  The  only  other  portion 
of  our  country  that  could  pretend  to  vie  with  New  England  in 
variety  of  charm  may  be  portions  of  New  York,  Pennsylvania, 
and  the  Blue  Ridge  region.  The  latter  would  be  our  greatest 
rival  were  it  accessible  and  exploited.  It  is  not  easily  seen.  One 
must  ride  a  horse  or  walk  miles  to  get  a  glimpse  of  a  charming 
vista,  a  lovely  valley,  or  a  waterfall.  But  he  who  may  freely 
choose  his  home  in  New  England  may  locate  it  where  the 
pounding  of  the  ocean  upon  granite  shores  is  always  in  his 
ears ;  or  he  may  dwell  upon  a  mountain  top,  look  down  upon 
the  hills  and  valleys,  and  listen  to  nothing  but  the  winds.  He 
may  bask  on  the  sands  of  Cape  Cod,  or  wade  knee-deep  in  the 
clover  fields  of  Maine ;  or  he  may  watch  the  serried  ranks  of 
the  tobacco  in  the  fields  of  the  Connecticut  valley.  He  may  es- 
tablish himself  upon  some  breezy  hillside,  or  elect  to  place  his 
house  by  one  of  a  thousand  lakes  or  rivers.  He  may  choose 
among  a  hundred  quiet  villages,  with  elm-  or  maple-shaded 
streets,  or  he  may  settle  into  one  of  the  scores  of  larger  towns 
or  small  cities.  If  he  be  in  search  of  sport,  he  can  trawl  for 
muskallonge  and  pickerel  in  Lake  Champlain,  lure  the  shining 
trout  from  the  streams  in  northern  New  Hampshire,  Vermont 
and  Maine,  or  look  down  through  the  limpid  waters  of  Rock- 
port  harbor  and  see  the  two-foot  cod  taking  his  siesta  on  the 
bottom.  He  may  pursue  the  fickle  moose  and  buck  in  Maine, 
and  he  may  bag  the  wary  partridge  in  any  of  the  four  north- 
ern states.  He  may  play  tennis  at  Newport  or  Longwood  or 
Lenox,  or  golf  at  Bretton  Woods  or  almost  anywhere.  The 
New  England  seacoast  is  the  most  varied  and  charming  of  any 
in  the  country.  Along  Connecticut,  Rhode  Island,  and  the 
cape  portion  of  Massachusetts,  it  is  generally  sandy,  the 
shores  low,  and  the  water  warm  enough  for  bathing  in  sum- 
mer. Generally  north  of  Boston  the  shores  are  "  stern  and 
rock-bound,"  and  the  water  is  colder.  When  Maine  is  reached 

[  34  ] 


The  Charm  of  New  England 

coniferous  trees  predominate,  and  the  coast  line  is  much 
broken  with  innumerable  bays  and  inlets  and  islands,  along  and 
among  which  coastwise  steamers  constantly  ply.  Lovely  sum- 
mer colonies  are  sprinkled  all  along  the  coast,  and  many  of  the 
sightly  promontories  are  crowned  with  great  hotels  or  fine 
villas.  It  were  vain  to  try  to  enumerate  the  rivers  and  lakes. 
There  are  but  three  navigable  rivers,  and  they  are  open  but 
for  short  distances :  The  Connecticut  to  Hartford,  the  Penob- 
scot  to  Bangor,  and  the  Thames  to  Norwich.  The  waters  of 
New  England  are  naturally  clear  and  limpid.  Some  of  the 
rivers  are  polluted  with  sewage  and  mill  waste,  but  they  are 
being  purified  as  rapidly  as  is  possible.  But  two  of  the  lakes 
are  polluted  with  sewage,  and  they  not  materially.  The  brooks 
are  a  delight,  because  of  their  picturesque  environment  and  the 
sparkling  purity  of  their  waters.  The  rivers  add  their  pictur- 
esque element  as  well  as  turn  the  innumerable  water  wheels 
for  factories  and  to  generate  electricity  for  light  and  power. 
Our  forests  have  gone  into  the  paper  mills,  for  the  most  part, 
and  to  the  match  factories ;  but  there  are  some  large  sections 
left  —  one  in  Maine  that  is  still  untouched  is  larger  than  the 
famous  Black  Forest  in  Germany.  When  forests  are  cut  off  the 
scar  is  quickly  healed  with  a  second  growth,  if  the  land  is  not 
put  into  agriculture ;  and,  now  the  big  paper  companies,  the 
railroads,  and  many  private  owners,  as  well  as  the  state  govern- 
ments, are  doing  a  great  deal  of  reforesting,  so  that  the  outlook 
is  good  for  a  restoration  of  our  prestige  as  a  lumber  region.  New 
England  is  made  of  mountains  and  hills  and  the  valleys  be- 
tween them.  They  are  everywhere.  There  is  absolutely  no 
level  country,  as  there  is  in  other  sections.  The  valley  of  the 
Connecticut  is  the  nearest  approach,  where  there  are  plains 
several  miles  wide,  but  there  are  hills  in  the  midst  of  them. 
Mount  Tom  and  Mount  Holyoke  rear  themselves  from  the 
plain.  It  is  only  in  the  White  mountains  that  peaks  rise  above 
the  timber  line,  and  there  may  be  found  mountains  to  satisfy 
any  craving  for  grandeur,  and  there  can  be  found  plenty  of 
untamed  nature.  Some  of  the  peaks  in  the  Franconia  and 
Presidential  ranges  are  as  wild  as  the  most  inveterate  moun- 
tain-climber could  wish.  It  is  useless,  and  impossible,  to  at- 

[  35  ] 


The  Charm  of  New  England 

tempt  to  enumerate  the  lesser  mountains  and  the  fine  hill- 
and-valley  scenic  gems.  In  the  Berkshires,  and  the  same  ranges 
in  Vermont  where  they  are  called  Green  mountains,  can  be 
found  scenery  as  fine  as  the  world  affords  —  not  awe-inspir- 
ing, but  beautiful.  The  hills  are  rounded  and  covered  with 
verdure,  and  in  the  valleys  lie  towns,  villages,  farms,  streams 
and  lakes.  The  valleys  must  be  seen.  So  of  all  New  England 
scenery:  Words  are  colorless;  it  must  be  seen,  studied,  lived 
with,  loved. 

Even  the  climate  of  New  England,  much  maligned  by  some 
who  have  felt  its  pinch  in  winter  or  its  dry  scorch  in  summer, 
is  indeed  the  best  climate  in  the  world,  if  to  its  diverse  and 
often  fickle  charm  there  be  added  its  man-building  power.  It 
is  necessary  to  know  our  climate  and  be  able  to  coordinate  its 
influence  to  the  traditional  virility  of  New  England  character 
if  it  is  to  be  truly  estimated;  it  is  necessary  to  consider  it  as 
summer  and  winter,  and  in  the  light  of  a  series  of  years.  It  is 
indeed  also  necessary  to  be  very  forbearing,  as  it  tries  the 
patience  and  the  faith  of  the  critical,  and  those  not  inclined 
to  consider  averages  and  ultimate  results.  But  our  climate  is 
a  large  element  in  the  New  England  character  and  the  New 
England  race.  It  makes  hardy,  clear-headed,  robust,  tolerant, 
active,  virile,  men  and  women ;  and  no  better  product  can  be 
hoped  for  in  any  climate.  And  it  is  in  itself  charming.  It  not 
only  makes  for  health  and  physical  stability,  but  it  nurtures 
the  esthetic  and  the  moral  nature.  "  Variety,"  we  are  assured, 
"  is  the  very  spice  of  life."  We  have  variety  of  climate,  about 
as  much  variety  as  the  world  furnishes.  We  have  touches  of 
the  tropics,  and  touches  of  the  arctic  regions ;  we  have  the 
chill  wet  of  the  California  winter,  and  the  scorching  drought 
of  the  Arizona  deserts;  we  have  the  snows  of  Russia,  and  the 
balmy  days  and  evenings  of  the  Riviera.  There  is  nowhere,  so 
far  as  contemporary  records  inform  us,  varieties  of  climate 
which  are  not  sampled  in  New  England,  and  there  is  no  bodily 
ill  which  may  be  corrected  by  change  of  climate  that  may  not 
be  made  to  yield  to  some  one  of  our  climatic  conditions.  The 
climatic  ills  with  which  we  are  inflicted  in  one  section  disappear 
when  we  migrate  to  the  antithetical  region.  The  mountains 

[  37  ] 


New  England 

correct  abnormal  tendencies  induced  by  the  sea,  and  the  sea 
is  the  antidote  for  the  ills  bred  in  the  mountains.  And  every- 
where is  that  infinite  variety  which  stimulates  and  soothes, 
which  delights  and  satisfies,  which  ennobles  and  builds 
character. 

The  historical  charm  of  New  England  is  scarcely  less 
potent  than  its  natural  charm,  and  touches  all  good  Ameri- 
cans with  the  same  spirit.  The  native  New  Englander  feels 
the  honor  involuntarily  bestowed  upon  him  as  something  akin 
to  personal  merit,  and  is  prone  to  mildly  exalt  himself  before 
men.  If  he  cannot  spy  out  his  lineage  back  along  the  dimming 
genealogic  trail  leading  to  the  Plymouth  beach  and  the  deck 
of  the  Mayflower,  he  seeks  to  discover  direct  or  collateral  con- 
nection with  some  of  those  whose  historical  vision  may  be 
clearer,  more  definite,  and  better  authenticated.  There  are 
many  desirable  sources  of  ancestry  in  New  England  history, 
and  plenty  of  potential  consolations  for  those  who  feel  that 
they  are  indeed  of  the  blood,  but  may  not  peer  so  far  into  the 
past  as  the  Mayflower.  There  are  the  various  expeditions  to 
found  new  states,  undertaken  willingly  or  under  certain 
duress,  as  the  migration  of  Roger  Williams  and  his  friends  to 
Rhode  Island ;  there  are  the  various  wars,  such  as  the  several 
collisions  with  the  Indians,  the  Revolution,  the  war  of  1812, 
and  so  forth.  These  latter  were  not  strictly  New  England 
affairs,  we  are  forced  to  admit,  but  certain  of  the  chief  actors 
were  natives  of  this  section,  and  that  is  a  fact  not  to  be  for- 
gotten by  either  direct  or  collateral  descendants ;  and  many 
of  the  most  stirring  events  of  the  great  war  for  independence 
were  fought  on  New  England  soil  - —  the  battle  of  Bunker's 
Hill,  we  do  not  forget,  decided  the  liberties  of  the  American 
Colonies.  We  see  now,  down  the  vista  of  history,  that  it  did, 
and  we  delight  to  remember  that  Washington  made  that  decla- 
ration when  the  news  of  the  fight  was  brought  to  him,  and 
clinched  his  opinion  at  Dorchester  Heights,  some  months 
later.  We  concede,  with  generous  pride,  that  the  Revolution 
came  to  a  dramatic  and  glorious  end  in  Virginia;  and  we 
realize  that  it  was  the  glorious  end  of  a  struggle  begun  in 
New  England.  We  like  to  hark  back  to  that  war,  and  those 

I  38  ] 


The  Charm  of  New  England 

of  us  who  can  trace  a  direct  relationship  with  any  of  its 
heroes  remind  others  of  that  fact  with  the  occasional  sight  of 
modest  buttons  on  the  lapels  of  our  coats,  and  regale  the 
world  every  year  with  reports  of  fervent  dinners. 

But  these  things  are  but  the  embroidery  of  history,  the 
pleasant  devices  we  adopt  to  keep  vital  within  us  the  spark  of 
patriotism  that  was  in  those  days  of  the  past  fanned  into  such 
roaring  flames  by  men  who  blundered  into  the  roles  of  tyrants. 
That  in  the  history  of  New  England  which  most  attracts  us 
of  today,  which  constitutes  its  principal  charm  for  us,  is  that 
it  is  the  story  of  the  germination  of  a  great  nation,  and  more 
even  than  that:  that  it  is  the  story  of  the  beginning  of  the 
greatest  and  most  significant  era  in  the  world's  history.  The 
little  knot  of  Pilgrims  who  were  led  out  of  Holland  to  America 
were  the  pollen  of  that  great  and  fragrant  flower,  Civiliza- 
tion, and  they  were  rudely  shaken  off  their  parent  stalk,  after 
the  fashion  of  Nature,  by  harsh  and  hostile  forces,  that  they 
might  seek  out  and  fertilize  the,  to  then,  barren  and  undevel- 
oped blossoms  that  were  ready  in  the  western  hemisphere.  As 
this  story  of  the  making  of  the  newer  and  greater  world  on 
this  western  hemisphere  recedes  into  the  past  it  takes  on  a  new 
and  different  character.  It  becomes  softened  as  to  outline  and 
definite  as  to  motive  and  purpose,  and  we  see  in  it  something 
more  than  the  fighting  of  battles  with  Nature  and  with  tyran- 
nical rulers,  something  more  than  the  winning  of  freedom  for 
the  people  who  even  then  felt  that  they  were  destined  to 
create  a  great  race  and  build  a  great  nation.  We  see  the 
greater  plan  to  loosen  the  bonds  of  thought,  of  intellect,  of 
aspiration,  of  religion,  of  science,  of  imagination,  of  art;  in 
short,  of  all  the  forces  that  make  for  higher  civilization,  fuller 
life,  greater  opportunity,  and  the  bourgeoning  of  humanity. 
In  the  light  of  this  truer  view,  the  throes  of  those  early  days 
in  New  England  both  shrink  and  enlarge.  It  is  seen  that  they 
were  of  little  consequence,  in  themselves  as  throes,  but  that 
they  were  the  birth  pains  of  an  era  of  the  world.  We  of  New 
England  do  not  desire  to  monopolize  these  hallowed  historical 
memories.  We  realize  that  we  have  a  very  large  interest  in 
them,  and  that  it  was  in  New  England  that  the  initiative  was 

[  39  ] 


New  England 

first  and  most  emphatically  made  manifest.  There  are  other 
sections  that  can  claim  almost  coincident  settling,  but  none 
of  them  received  this  pollen  of  freedom  and  progress  that  came 
to  New  England  with  the  Pilgrims,  and  landed  on  Plymouth 
Rock.  While  we  are  not  inclined  to  take  credit  or  unction  to 
ourselves  on  account  of  this  fact,  which  we  are  certain  was 
arranged  by  that  Providence  which  orders  the  courses  of  the 
world,  we  do  take  just  pride  in  the  other  fact,  that  we  are  of 
those  who  were  the  instruments  of  that  Providence,  and  that 
we  are  now  permitted  to  live  within  the  aura  of  the  first  physi- 
cal contact  of  that  radical  principle  of  human  freedom  and 
progress.  It  constitutes  one  of  the  most  potent  of  the  charms 
of  New  England,  which  has  been  distributed  into  the  utter- 
most parts  of  these  United  States  and  is  now  as  much  their 
heritage  as  ours. 

Yet,  despite  the  spreading  over  all  the  country  of  the 
people  of  New  England,  there  is  now  in  New  England  more 
of  the  original  character  that  has  made  it  distinctive  than 
even  we  ourselves  appreciate.  New  England  is  yet  emphatic- 
ally New  England.  There  have  come  to  us  hordes  of  people 
from  other  countries,  and  there  have  gone  from  us  other 
hordes  of  our  own  people  to  other  sections  and  to  other 
countries.  But  there  remains  a  great  majority  of  the  old 
stock.  Not  only  have  the  newcomers  not  spread  over  all  the 
land,  but  they  are  gradually  being  swallowed  up  in  the  historic 
New  England.  The  change  that  has  come  over  us  on  account 
of  the  new  people  who  are  coming  is  not  as  great  nor  as  per- 
manent as  we  are  wont  to  believe  at  times,  when  we  come 
closely  in  contact  with  the  new  elements.  It  is  always  to  be  re- 
membered that  the  new  people  come  from  the  same  countries 
that  our  fathers  came  from,  many  of  them,  and  that  the  mo- 
tives that  send  them  here  are,  in  many  cases,  even  more  preg- 
nant with  a  desire  for  human  freedom  than  were  the  motives 
of  our  fathers.  They  fled  from  religious  intoleration  and  from 
material  oppression,  but  the  intoleration  and  oppression  that 
is  driving  the  Poles,  the  Russian  subjects,  and  the  northern 
Europe  peasantry  generally,  to  this  country  is  more  real  and 
much  greater.  In  former  years  the  Irish  fled  from  conditions 

[  40  ] 


The  Charm  of  New  England 

worse  than  those  that  drove  the  Pilgrims  hither;  and  the 
Italian  and  German  peasants  are  not  leaving  beds  of  indus- 
trial roses  to  come  to  us.  These  people,  who  come  here  to 
escape  intolerable  conditions  of  life,  are  contributing  to  the 
charm  of  New  England  because  they  are  doing  for  themselves 
almost  exactly  what  our  fathers  did  for  themselves,  and  be- 
cause they  are  assimilating  themselves  into  the  life  of  New 
England.  We  are  prone  not  to  remember  facts  when  AVC  think 
of  the  immigrant  problem,  as  we  call  it.  We  have  taken  pos- 
session of  the  country,  and  have  imposed  upon  it  our  language 
and  our  habits.  We  have  not  changed  much.  We  came  with 
the^  English  language,  with  our  religion  fixed,  with  our  dress, 
with  our  ideas  of  social  life,  with  our  ideas  of  domestic  life, 
with  our  framework  of  law,  with  our  industries.  We  have  all 
these  now,  and  we  mean  to  keep  them.  Not  only  that,  but  we 
mean  that  everybody  who  has  come  here  since  we  came  shall 
also  adopt  them.  And  they  are  doing  it.  That  is  distinctively 
one  of  the  charms  of  New  England,  that  its  character  is  not 
being  eroded  away  by  the  people  who  come  from  the  other  side 
of  the  Atlantic,  but  that  they  are  becoming  New  Englanders ; 
not  as  rapidly  nor  as  generally  as  some  of  us  wish,  but,  as  to 
the  more  desirable  among  them,  surely  and  steadily. 

Then  there  is  the  New  England  thrift.  It  is  one  of  the  great 
charms  of  the  section.  New  England  has  no  copyright  on 
thrift.  Other  sections  have  it,  in  a  degree  greater  or  less  than 
we  have  it.  But  it  has  happened  that  New  England  thrift  has 
enabled  us  to  be  of  greater  consequence  in  the  development  of 
the  other  parts  of  the  country  than  any  other  group  has  been. 
It  was  our  fortune,  due  to  primacy  of  origin  and  settlement. 
The  conditions  of  life  imposed  upon  the  early  New  Eng- 
landers imposed  also  upon  them  the  most  rigorous  thrift.  To 
support  life  they  had  to  save  every  penny,  and  they  had  to 
search  diligently  for  the  pennies  to  save.  This  hard  condition 
bred  thrift.  At  the  first  our  fathers  could  not  spend  if  they 
would.  They  did  not  have  the  money,  and  they  could  not  get 
it;  but  if  they  had  had  money  they  could  not  have  spent  it, 
because  there  was  no  more  opportunity  for  spending  than  for 
earning.  Thrift  was  imposed  upon  the  first  New  England  gen- 

f  41  1 


The  Charm  of  New  England 

eration  by  conditions  they  could  not  escape,  and  it  became  the 
habit  of  succeeding  generations.  It  is  still  a  New  England 
characteristic,  though  its  rule  has  in  the  cities  become  modi- 
fied. It  has  given  the  country  a  continuing  stream  of  money, 
and  that  stream  is  still  flowing.  New  England  money  has  made 
many  of  the  cities  of  the  West,  built  many  of  the  railroads 
everywhere,  developed  many  of  the  mines,  made  farming  pos- 
sible in  the  early  days  of  the  Middle  West,  harvested  the  crops 
in  the  grain  country  until  within  very  recent  years,  and  moved 
the  wheels  of  progress  generally.  And  there  is  plenty  of  it  now 
where  it  has  been  coming  from  for  three  generations  —  in  the 
savings  banks  of  New  England,  and  in  the  strong  boxes  and 
leather  wallets  of  the  New  England  people.  This  may  be  es- 
teemed a  sordid  element  to  account  one  of  the  charms  of  New 
England,  but  a  little  reflection  will  dispel  that  view.  It  is  that 
which  New  England  money  has  done,  can  do,  and  is  doing, 
which  makes  of  this  habit  of  thrift  one  of  the  distinctive  and 
distinguished  charms  of  New  England.  It  is  not  put  out  to 
usury.  It  is  collected  by  the  savings  banks,  the  building  and 
loan  banks,  the  great  industrial  corporations,  the  national 
banks  and  the  trust  companies,  and  made  to  do  its  part  in  the 
development  of  the  country.  It  has  been,  and  it  is,  adventur- 
ous. It  went  into  the  western  farm  mortgages,  and  much  of 
it  was  lost  there;  but  it  played  its  part  in  making  farming 
there  possible  and  profitable.  It  has  never  shrunk  from  taking 
heavy  risks,  in  the  missionary  spirit  that  has  ever  been  a  New 
England  characteristic.  It  has  been,  and  it  is,  an  amelioristic 
element  in  the  country's  finances. 

One  of  the  especial  charms  of  New  England  is  the  New 
England  sociological  spirit.  It  is  distinct  from  the  sociological 
spirit  of  the  country,  and  it  is  that  difference  that  makes  of 
it  a  New  England  charm.  Sociology  is,  one  may  say,  rampant 
in  the  world,  and  no  section  of  the  world  is  justified  in  claim- 
ing its  devotion  to  sociological  thought  or  work  as  a  distinc- 
tive or  exclusive  charm.  There  is  in  New  England  however  a 
variety  of  sociological  development  that  is  perhaps  in  its  in- 
tensity not  to  be  found  elsewhere,  and  it  offers  to  the  thought- 
fully inclined,  and  to  the  altruistic,  an  opportunity  to  indulge 

[43] 


New  England 

their  penchant  such  as  is  nowhere  else  available.  It  is  the 
fashion  in  Boston,  which  is  really  the  capital  of  New  England 
as  well  as  the  capital  of  Massachusetts,  to  devote  some  share 
of  one's  time,  money  and  enthusiasm  to  the  service  of  Man, 
and  to  do  it  in  a  very  practical  and  result-bringing  way ;  and 
the  example  Boston  sets  is  followed  in  the  other  cities  and 
towns.  To  a  large  and  increasing  extent  these  manifestations 
of  sociological  bent  which  originate  and  focus  in  Boston  are 
participated  in  by  people  in  all  the  states,  so  closely  have  the 
trolleys,  the  telephone,  the  automobiles,  and  the  improved 
service  of  the  steam  railroads,  drawn  us  together.  That  new 
spirit  in  business  which  is  accomplishing  such  great  things  for 
business,  and  which  is  lending  business  methods  to  sociology 
and  philanthropy  and  religion  and  education,  is  having  a 
great  and  significant  development  in  New  England.  We  stood 
by  and  watched  the  sentiment  blossom  and  fruit  elsewhere, 
not  in  a  spirit  of  criticism  but  to  note  the  methods  and  the  re- 
sults. Finally,  when  New  England  was  ready,  we  took  up  the 
work,  and  began  at  once  to  show  remarkable  results.  In  Bos- 
ton there  is  now  going  on  what  it  is  perfectly  just  to  describe 
as  the  most  remarkable  movement  in  applied  sociology  that 
is  anywhere  at  work.  The  visible  mediums  for  this  work  are 
the  Boston  Chamber  of  Commerce,  Boston-1915,  the  Pilgrim 
Publicity  Association,  the  Boston  Young  Men's  Christian  As- 
sociation, the  Franklin  Foundation,  the  school  authorities,  the 
labor  associations,  some  of  the  boards  and  associations  of  the 
state,  the  Metropolitan  Park,  Water,  and  Sewage  boards,  the 
churches,  and  many  other  organizations  and  societies.  The 
first  and  third  named  associations  are  essentially  business  or- 
ganizations, but  they  are  conducted  on  the  theory  that  better 
business  results  if  there  are  better  men,  and  so  their  work  has 
often  a  very  strong  sociological  flavor,  and  their  whole  force 
is  often  focussed  upon  the  accomplishment  of  purposes  which 
have  but  a  distant  relation  to  business.  There  are  in  Boston 
many  small  informal  associations  of  men  working  for  some 
special  end,  such  as  getting  a  business  course  into  the  curric- 
ulum of  Harvard  University,  or  Yale,  or  focusing  the  ener- 
gies of  groups  of  more  or  less  visionary  societies  upon  some 

I  44  ] 


The  Charm  of  New  England 

practical  reform  or  advance  movement,  or  lending  the  aid  of 
disinterested  citizens  to  the  work  of  school  authorities,  or 
turning  the  attention  of  churches  and  their  related  associa- 
tions to  civic  investigation  and  work.  New  England  is  a  verit- 
able caldron  of  sociology,  and  its  manifestations  are  so  vari- 
ous that  there  is  not  the  slightest  chance  that  the  predilections 
of  any  individual  cannot  be  exactly  satisfied.  One  of  the  more 
desirable  and  hopeful  of  the  tendencies  of  this  flood  of  good- 
will formalized  is  that  it  is  realizing  that  it  is  not  altruism 
that  is  to  be  desired,  but  mutualism.  So  in  New  England  the 
thing  is  not  so  much  for  brother  to  help  brother  as  for 
brethren  to  work  together  for  their  mutual  benefit. 

Much  has  always  been  said  and  written  about  New  England 
culture,  and  some  of  it  has  had  at  least  a  suspicion  of  a  fleer 
in  it.  Both  the  statement  and  the  fleer  in  it  have  been  deserved. 
We  are  devoted  to  culture,  and  some  of  us  mistake  informa- 
tion for  culture.  If  we  know  about  things  we  wish  it  to  be  ac- 
knowledged that  we  are  cultured.  Some  of  us  know  better,  and 
realize  that  culture  is  more  than  knowledge,  and  different. 
Culture  is  not  a  sectional  quality.  It  is  prone  to  follow  in  the 
wake  of  age.  Where  men  have  been  for  a  long  time,  have  over- 
come the  obstacles  of  nature,  and  have  found  time  to  discover 
themselves,  there  is  sure  to  be  culture.  It  is  not  that  New  Eng- 
land is  New  England  that  culture  abides  here,  but  that  New 
Englanders  have  had  more  time  to  ripen;  and  perhaps  also 
that  they  brought  a  quantity  of  well-developed  primal  stock 
from  the  old  land.  But  there  is  no  quality  of  exclusiveness  in 
New  England  culture.  It  is  altruistic,  and  it  seeks  to  distrib- 
ute itself  as  democratically  as  possible.  Here  one  has  only  to 
have  the  desire  and  willingness  to  accept  the  opportunity  and 
almost  every  kind  of  knowledge  that  goes  for  the  foundation 
of  culture  is  freely  at  his  disposal. 

One  of  the  charming  things  about  New  England  is  that  it 
is,  in  some  respects,  the  most  finished  section  of  the  country. 
There  is  here  the  sense  of  the  benign  work  of  Time.  Every- 
where, even  in  the  midst  of  the  most  flourishing  and  progres- 
sive cities  and  towns,  there  are  examples  of  the  work  and  evi- 
dences of  the  lives  of  the  fathers  —  old  houses,  rows  of  stately 

[45  ] 


New  England 

elm  trees,  old  business  buildings  with  their  queer  gable  ends 
to  the  street ;  while  ever  and  anon  there  are  still  to  be  encoun- 
tered men  who  adhere  to  the  dress  and  fashion  of  life  current 
two  or  three  generations  ago.  The  Webster  style  of  blue 
swallow-tail  coat  with  brass  buttons  has  but  just  disappeared 
from  one  of  the  New  England  legislatures.  There  are  every- 
where reminders  of  the  glory  that  was.  There  are  many  house- 
holds that  are  conducted  almost  as  in  the  colonial  times. 
Supper  is  yet  the  evening  meal  throughout  rural  New  Eng- 
land, and  in  a  goodly  proportion  of  the  city  homes  as  well; 
and  it  is  not  only  supper  in  name  but  the  same  foods  are 
served  in  the  same  manner.  What  are  called  primitive  customs 
survive.  The  curfew  rings  from  many  church  steeples,  though 
leniency  is  practiced  with  respect  to  the  ordering  of  lights  out 
at  the  same  time.  The  district  school  exists  everywhere  in  the 
more  remote  and  smaller  sections.  The  town  academy  has  not 
wholly  surrendered  to  the  modern  high  school.  A  majority  of 
the  farms  are  still  worked  as  great-grandfather  worked  his, 
though  this  is  cited  solely  as  a  pictorial  element  of  charm,  not 
as  an  industrial  fact  to  flaunt.  The  New  England  style  of 
architecture  gives  way  to  more  modern  conceptions  with  stub- 
born slowness.  Most  of  the  country  churches  are  redolent  with 
suggestion  of  the  storied  past,  and  the  echoes  from  the  pulpits 
often  serve  to  strengthen  the  illusion.  The  old-fashioned 
gentleman  and  lady  are  present  at  every  church  service  and 
at  every  village  function.  We  cling  to  the  memories  and  the 
habits  of  the  past,  and  by  so  doing  we  exasperate  the  more 
progressive  among  our  younger  people.  But  we  who  are 
charmed  with  these  survivals,  and  believe  that  they  are 
among  the  valuable  assets  of  New  England,  believe  that  we 
recognize  a  more  tolerant  spirit  with  reference  to  them. 

That  charm  which  appeals  with  the  greatest  force  to  many 
people  is  that  more  or  less  intangible  relict  from  the  past 
which  preserves  for  the  New  Englanders  of  today  the  essence 
of  the  past,  manifested  no  less  in  the  settled  air  of  having 
already  lived  than  in  the  substantial  evidence  of  real  estate 
and  bank  balances.  New  England  is  full  of  the  charm  and  lure 
of  the  past,  the  old  New  England.  There  is  everywhere  the 

[46  ] 


The  Charm  of  New  England 

feeling  that  we  of  the  present  are  indeed  heirs  of  the  past,  and 
that  our  ancestors  were  careful  to  consider  our  needs  and  our 
wishes.  The  old  houses  in  many  of  the  larger  towns  and  cities 
attest  their  builders'  regard  for  their  posterity.  The  stately 
avenues  of  trees  everywhere  are  eloquent  of  the  care  which 
our  fathers  and  our  grandfathers  had  for  the  generations  that 
were  to  succeed  them.  They  built,  in  many  ways,  for  the  pleas- 
ure and  the  profit  of  the  generation  of  which  we  are.  They 
built  for  the  permanent  charm  of  New  England,  whether  con- 
sciously or  not  is  answered  by  the  elms  of  the  Connecticut 
valley,  which  need  two  generations  for  their  adolescence,  by 
the  wonderful  houses  of  old  Salem  and  Hallowell  and  Hart- 
ford and  other  cities,  which  are  even  more  attractive  now  than 
when  they  were  built ;  and  by  the  thousand  and  one  other  evi- 
dences of  planning  and  building  for  futurity  which  are  met 
with  on  every  hand.  Time  has  given  New  England  that  restful 
air  of  being  finished  which  is  so  grateful  to  the  senses.  The 
raw,  the  unfinished,  the  temporary,  the  experimental,  the 
transitory,  are  notably  absent  from  our  lands  and  waters.  A 
goodly  proportion  of  New  England  farmhouses  have  melted 
into  the  general  prospect  so  amiably  as  to  seem  to  have  been 
designed  to  complement  the  scene,  and  many  of  our  towns 
and  cities  have  become  merged  in  the  landscape  as  though  they 
too  were  included  in  the  scheme  by  the  great  landscape  archi- 
tect who  fashioned  the  country. 

The  charm  of  New  England  lies  in  the  fact  that  New  Eng- 
land continues  to  be  New  England.  Sentiment,  romance,  the 
halo  of  youthful  memories,  the  sacred  aspirations  of  patriot- 
ism, the  roots  of  innumerable  families,  the  tremulous  first 
breath  of  universal  political  freedom,  the  motherings  of  a  new 
continent,  the  adolescence  of  America,  the  nourishing  of  the 
nation,  all  of  these  sentiments  and  memories  come  and  clamor 
when  New  England  gets  into  the  minds  and  hearts  of  the 
people  of  America,  and  it  is  then  that  we  know  that  New 
England  is  a  section  of  the  land  that  is  not  to  be  permitted 
to  live  for  and  unto  itself,  but  that  it  belongs  to  all  the  land 
and  all  the  people  of  the  land,  and  will  always  live  in  the 
hearts  of  all  the  people. 

[  47  ] 


Manufacturing  in  New  England 

AN  ungenerous  soil  for  the  greater  part,  scant  mineral 
wealth  embedded  in  great  rock  formations,  noble  but  not  con- 
tinental rivers  falling  from  mountain  lakes  and  streams  across 
its  territory  to  the  sea,  a  long  rocky  coast  indented  with 
numerous  harbors, — these  were  the  natural  resources  of  New 
England  which  the  pioneers  found  when  they  came.  At  the 
outset  their  labors  were  of  necessity  devoted  mainly  to  the 
cultivation  of  the  soil  to  supply  the  means  of  subsistence. 
Their  first  industry  was  home  building.  Their  first  artisans 
were  the  carpenter  and  the  blacksmith.  Their  first  mills  were 
the  grist  and  the  saw  mill.  The  rivers  were  their  first  high- 
ways. The  "  pinnace  "  and  the  ship  constituted  their  first 
system  of  transportation.  Simultaneously  with  the  clearing 
and  planting  of  the  land,  the  sea  was  cultivated,  and  the 
fisheries  and  the  carrying  trade  became  the  first  gainful  oc- 
cupations. Their  first  products,  other  than  fish,  were  drawn 
from  the  forests  that  environed  their  settlements  and  bor- 
dered the  rivers  and  streams.  Less  than  three  years  from  the 
planting  of  the  Pilgrims  the  ship  Anne  sailed  out  from  Ply- 
mouth on  her  return  to  England  laden  with  two  hogsheads 
of  beaver  and  otter  skins,  and  "  good  clapbord  as  full  as  she 
could  stowe."  The  Puritans  of  the  Bay  colony,  as  soon  as  es- 
tablished, were  taking  up  the  same  industry.  Very  early  they 
were  sending  their  products  from  the  forests  —  clapboards, 
pipestaves,  hoops,  rough  hewn  lumber,  —  not  alone  to  Eng- 
land, but  to  the  West  Indies,  where  they  found  a  welcome 
market  in  exchange  for  the  commodities  of  the  islands.  In  the 
infant  settlements  on  the  coast  of  New  Hampshire  and  Maine 
all  were  busiest  in  the  conversion  of  their  almost  inexhaus- 
tible wealth  of  timber  into  merchantable  forms. 

Close  upon  the  carpenter  and  the  blacksmith  came  the 
shipwright  and  shipbuilding,  for  the  fishing  and  carrying 
trades  became  a  paramount  industry.  So  too,  as  an  auxiliary 

[  48  ] 


Manufacturing'  in  New  England 

to  the  fisheries,  the  manufacture  of  salt  was  begun.  A  ship- 
wright and  a  saltmaker  were  among  the  accessions  of  the 
Plymouth  colony  in  1624.  The  shipwright,  as  Bradford 
records,  "  quickly  builds  two  very  good  and  strong  shallops, 
w,ith  a  great  and  strong  lighter,"  and  gets  out  "  hewn  timber 
for  ketches,"  while  the  saltmaker  attempts  the  manufacture 
of  salt  for  their  fisheries,  first  at  Cape  Ann  and  afterward 
on  Cape  Cod.  But  in  the  summer's  heat  the  shipwright  "  falls 
into  a  fever  "  and  "  dyes,"  to  their  great  loss  and  sorrow, 
and  the  saltmaker  fails  in  his  efforts,  for  he  is  "  an  igno- 
rante,  foolish,  self-willed  fellow."  Pretty  soon  the  Pilgrims 
had  better  luck,  and  by  1627  had  turned  out  a  neat  pinnace 
and  were  getting  salt  in  fair  plenty. 

By  1634,  only  four  years  after  the  beginning  of  Boston, 
the  New  Englanders  were  sending  out  their  commodities  of 
cured  fish,  lumber  and  furs,  and  bringing  back  articles  of 
convenience  and  even  of  luxury.  Their  well-laden  ships  were 
voyaging  to  England,  the  West  Indies,  the  Canaries.  In  1636 
one  of  Cradock's  ships  arrived  from  Bermuda  with  "  thirty 
thousand  weight  of  potatoes  and  store  of  oranges  and  limes." 
The  Boston  ship  Tryal  took  out  fish  to  Bilboa,  and  in  the 
spring  of  1644  returned  home  from  Malaga  laden  with 
"wine,  fruit,  oil,  iron  and  wool."  This,  the  chronicler  notes 
with  satisfaction,  was  "  of  great  advantage  to  the  country 
and  gave  encouragement  to  trade."  A  year  or  two  earlier 
the  writer  of  "New  England's  First  Fruits,"  remarked: 
"  Besides  many  boats,  shallops,  hoyes,  lighters,  pinnaces, 
we  are  in  a  way  of  building  shippes  of  a  100,  200,  300,  400 
tunne,  five  of  them  are  already  at  sea;  many  more  in  hand 
at  this  present."  This  he  devoutly  held  to  be  one  of  several 
"  remarkable  passages  "  of  God's  "  providence  to  our  plan- 
tation." And  Hubbard,  in  his  "History  of  New  England," 
wrote  of  the  period  between  1646-1651 :  "  The  people  of 
New  England  at  this  time  began  to  flourish  much  in  building 
ships  and  trafficking  abroad."  They  were  moreover  building 
ships  to  be  sold  abroad.  By  1645  New  England-built  fishing 
vessels  were  venturing  so  far  as  the  Banks  of  Newfoundland. 
By  1650,  as  Captain  Edward  Johnson  noted  in  his  buoyant 
"Wonder-Working  Providence  of  Sion's  Saviour  in  NewEng- 

[  49  ] 


New  England 

land  " :  "  Many  a  fair  ship  had  her  framing  and  finishing 
here,  besides  lesser  vessels,  barques  and  ketches,  many  a 
Master,  besides  common  Seamen,  had  their  first  learning  in 
this  Colony  [Massachusetts].  Boston,  Charles-Town,  Salem 
and  Ipswitch  our  Maritan  [maritime]  Towns,  began  to  en- 
crease  roundly,  especially  Boston,  the  which  of  a  poor  coun- 
try village  in  twice  [thrice]  seven  years  is  become  unto  a 
small  city."  From  these  slender  though  substantial  colonial 
beginnings  were  developed  the  great  shipbuilding  interests 
which  gave  New  England  wide  fame  before  and  after  the 
Revolution,  and  in  which  she  led  through  two  centuries. 

Along  with  the  development  of  the  lumber  trade,  the  fish- 
ing industry  and  shipbuilding  came  domestic  manufacture 
»for  home  consumption.  When  in  1641  immigration  had 
fallen  off  and,  as  Winthrop  wrote,  "  all  foreign  commodi- 
ties grew  scarce,"  and  their  own  "  of  no  price ;  corn  would 
buy  no  thing,  a  cow  which  cost  last  year  20  pounds,  might 
now  be  bought  for  4  or  5  pounds,"  these  straits  set  the 
people  on  sowing  hemp  and  flax,  as  well  as  on  fishing  and 
lumber  cutting,  and  "  to  look  out  to  the  West  Indies  for  a 
trade  for  cotton."  In  his  "  Plain  Dealing :  or  Newes  from 
New  England,"  wrote  the  observant  lawyer,  Thomas  Lech- 
ford,  who  had  been  in  the  colonies  in  1637-1641 :  "  They  are 
setting  on  the  manufacture  of  linnen  and  cotton  cloath." 
And  the  pious  recorder  of  "  New  England's  First  Fruits  " 
found  a  further  "  remarkable  passage "  in  the  prospering 
of  "  hempe  and  flaxe "  here  "  so  well  that  its  frequently 
sowen,  spun,  and  woven  into  linnen-cloth ;  and  in  a  short 
time  may  serve  for  cordage."  "  So,"  he  added,  "  with  cotton- 
wooll  (which  we  may  have  at  very  reasonable  rates  from  the 
islands)  and  our  linnen  yarne,  we  can  make  dimittees  and 
fustians  for  our  summer  clothing.  And  having  a  matter  of 
1000  sheep,  which  prosper  well  to  begin  withall,  in  a  com- 
petent time  we  may  hope  to  have  woollen  cloath  there  made. 
And  great  and  small  cattel,  being  now  very  frequently  killed 
for  food:  their  skins  will  afford  us  leather  for  boots  and 
shoes,  and  other  uses.  So  that  God  is  leading  us  by  the  hand 
into  a  way  of  clothing." 

The  spinning  wheel  was  now  an  important  adjunct  of  the 

[  50  ] 


Manufacturing'  in  New  England 

home,  and  the  housewife  and  her  buxom  daughters  were  be- 
coming adepts  in  their  first  domestic  manufactures.  The  shoe- 
maker and  the  tanner  had  arrived,  and  were  plying  their 
trades  in  Plymouth  and  in  Boston.  Thomas  Beard,  in  Ply- 
mouth, who  came  over  in  1628  bringing  out  with  him  a 
supply  of  English  hides  and  of  leather,  and  William  Copp, 
in  Boston,  whose  dwelling  and  shop  at  the  foot  of  the  north- 
ernmost of  Boston's  three  hills  gave  it  the  name  of  Copp's, 
were  the  forerunners  of  the  great  shoemakers  of  New  Eng- 
land who  brought  this  industry  to  the  foremost  place  and  to 
a  high  state  of  perfection.  Francis  Ingalls,  a  first  settler  of 
Lynn,  who  set  up  the  first  tannery  in  the  colonies  in  what 
is  now  Swampscott,  and  George  Keyser,  a  close  follower 
with  his  tannery  in  Lynn,  were  the  beginners  or  founders  of 
the  great  hide  and  leather  trade  in  which  New  England  early 
led  and  still  leads  the  country.  By  1641  ropemaking  had 
begun,  and  the  shipbuilders  were  no  longer  dependent  upon 
the  home  country  as  before  for  nearly  every  kind  of  ship 
rigging  and  tackle. 

Close  upon  the  home  building  and  the  cultivation  of  the 
soil  and  the  sea,  mills  were  set  up ;  and  early  the  rivers  and 
streams  nearest  the  coast  were  harnessed.  The  first  saw-mills 
were  water-mills.  The  first  corn-mills  were  wind-mills,  but 
waterpower  was  very  soon  substituted  for  wind.  The  pioneer 
New  England  mill  appears  to  have  been  a  wind-propelled 
corn-mill  in  Massachusetts ;  the  first  water-mill  was  a  saw-mill 
in  New  Hampshire.  The  corn-mill,  tradition  says,  was  first 
set  up  in  or  near  Watertown,  on  the  Charles  river ;  but  "  be- 
cause it  would  not  grind  but  with  a  westerly  wind,"  it  was 
taken  down  in  1632  and  removed  to  Boston,  where  it  was 
reerected  at  the  North  End  on  the  hill  that  became  Copp's 
hill.  The  saw-mill  was  on  Salmon  Falls  river,  near  Ports- 
mouth, and  was  running,  as  some  local  historians  say,  as 
early  as  1631,  although  the  first  mention  of  it  as  apparently 
in  operation  is  in  1634  or  1635.  The  first  water-propelled 
grist-mill  was  Colonel  Israel  Stoughton's  mill  erected,  "by 
leave  of  the  plantation,"  on  the  Neponset  river,  at  Milton, 
where  the  oldest  of  the  chocolate-mills  now  stands,  and  it 

[  51  1 


New  England 

ground  "  the  first  bushel  of  grain  ever  ground  by  water  in 
New  England,"  in  the  autumn  of  1634.  Antedating  all  of 
these  was  a  Pilgrim  water-mill  set  up  beside  "  Billington 
Sea  "  in  Plymouth ;  but  that  was  simply  a  pounding  mill  by 
which  corn  was  cleaned  from  the  hull  and  prepared  for 
samp,  or  nausamp  and  succotash,  the  use  of  which  the  colo- 
nists learned  from  the  Indians.  It  may  have  been  the  first  mill 
to  take  the  place  of  the  primitive  mortars  borrowed  from  the 
Indians  which  the  Pilgrims  first  used  to  crush  their  corn. 
In  1636  and  1637  more  water  grist-mills  sprung  up  in  the 
Bay  colony  —  in  Salem,  Ipswich,  Newbury ;  and  about  the  same 
time  water  saw-mills  began  to  multiply  along  the  streams  of 
Maine  and  New  Hampshire.  Rhode  Island  was  slower  than 
its  sister  colonies  in  utilizing  waterpower,  dependence  being 
on  wind-mills  for  a  considerable  period.  But  it  was  early  en- 
gaged in  the  lumber  industry,  making  first  exports  of  lumber, 
pipestaves,  and  so  forth,  in  1639—1640.  In  Connecticut  the 
first  saw-mill  was  at  New  London,  set  up  previous  to  1654, 
an  enterprise  of  the  younger  John  Winthrop.  Early  iron 
works  were  established,  and  this  younger  John  Winthrop 
was  their  chief  promoter.  It  was  he  who  discovered  iron  ore 
in  New  England.  The  first  furnace  in  America,  set  up  in 
Lynn  in  1644,  where  bog  iron  in  considerable  quantities  was 
found,  was  quickly  followed  by  the  second,  in  Braintree ;  both 
owned  by  the  same  company,  which  was  instituted  by  Win- 
throp, who  was  also  subsequently  concerned  in  an  iron  works 
in  New  Haven.  Thus  Lynn  has  the  distinction  of  having  first 
introduced  the  manufacture  of  iron  as  well  as  of  leather  into 
the  colonies,  and  the  merit  of  having  developed  these  indus- 
tries to  substantial  proportions.  These  pioneer  iron  works 
continued  in  operation,  with  variable  success,  for  a  consider- 
able period,  the  Lynn  works  for  more  than  a  century,  and 
from  them  graduated  workers  who  were  the  progenitors  of 
great  American  iron  masters.  Among  these  graduates  was 
Henry  Leonard,  one  of  the  earliest  employed  in  the  Lynn 
works  who  assisted  in  making  the  first  castings  in  Amer- 
ica. He,  with  his  brother  James,  establishing  a  forge  in  the 
town  of  Raynham  in  1652,  was  the  first  of  a  long  line  of 

[  52  ] 


Manufacturing1  in  New  England 

iron  masters  of  that  name  in  different  parts  of  the  country. 
The  brothers  Leonard  appear  to  have  added  to  the  manu- 
facture the  operations  of  the  bloomery  and  the  forge  ham- 
mer. A  year  or  two  after  the  setting  up  of  their  forge,  a 
Dutch  writer  in  the  New  Netherlands  remarked  of  the  New 
Englanders,  that  they  were  then  "  casting  their  own  can- 
non, plates,  pots  and  cannon  balls  from  native  iron."  In  1691 
iron  ore,  called  rockmine,  was  obtained  from  the  ledges  of 
Nahant  for  the  forge  at  Braintree.  At  about  the  same  time 
iron  ore,  much  better  than  bog  iron,  was  found  in  the  bot- 
toms of  ponds,  and  profitably  used.  It  was  pulled  up  from 
the  beds  with  tongs,  lifted  into  boats,  taken  ashore  and 
carted  to  the  furnaces.  The  first  rolling  and  slitting  mill  was 
erected  in  Middleboro,  Mass.  Here  were  produced  nail-rods 
out  of  which  hammered  nails  were  made.  At  a  foundry  in 
neighboring  Bridgewater,  later  established,  tradition  says 
were  made  the  first  cannon  in  the  country,  cast  solid  and 
taken  elsewhere  to  be  bored.  At  this  foundry  cannon  balls 
and  cannon  were  turned  out  during  the  French  and  Indian 
wars,  and  the  Revolution;  and  Weston  tells  how  the  owners 
of  this  foundry  undertook  to  cast  four  cannon  six  or  seven 
feet  long  to  be  used  in  the  Revolution,  and  how  when  tested 
they  exploded  and  the  owners  lost  all  their  property  in  the 
venture.  As  early  as  1639  glass  manufacture  had  begun, 
with  the  making  of  bottles  and  other  coarse  wares.  Window- 
glass  making  was  undertaken  at  a  later  date.  Before  that 
window  glass  was  an  imported  luxury  and  only  the  opulent, 
or  the  fairly  well-to-do,  had  it  in  their  windows.  From  these 
crude  beginnings  glass  manufacture  became  in  time  an  im- 
portant New  England  industry,  and  so  continued  till  into 
the  second  half  of  the  nineteenth  century. 

During  the  closing  eighteenth  century  Rhode  Island's 
domestic  manufacturing  was  underway,  receiving  a  great 
impetus  through  the  ingenuity  and  enterprise  of  Samuel 
Slater;  and  Connecticut  was  beginning  the  development  of 
her  marvelous  variety  of  industries  in  the  product  of  small- 
wares,  which  came  to  their  rich  bloom  with  the  advancing 
nineteenth  century,  and  hold  to  this  day.  Connecticut-made 

[  53  1 


0*2 


il- 
ls 


Manufacturing  in  New  England 

goods  early  after  the  Revolution  became  important  American 
staples,  and  Connecticut  "Yankee  notions"  won  fame  the  world 
over.  Before  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century  New  England 
was  making  beaver  hats  for  the  world,  and  the  feltmakers  in 
London  were  appealing  to  the  government  to  protect  them 
against  this  competition  of  the  colonists  by  prohibiting  the 
importation  of  American-made  hats,  which  was  done. 

To  properly  treat  of  the  manufacturing  in  New  England 
would  require  several  volumes  the  size  of  this.  Nothing  but  a 
rapid  and  impressionistic  sketch  can  be  attempted  —  indica- 
tive of  what  there  is  now  in  New  England  in  the  way  of  great 
and  special  manufacturing  interests,  and  of  what  there  is 
ground  to  hope  there  will  be  in  the  near  future. 

That  there  is  to  be  improvement,  substantial  and  natural 
growth,  for  the  industries  of  New  England  requires  faith  to 
believe  and  proof  to  demonstrate.  In  other  sections  of  the 
country  the  fact  of  future  growth  is  accepted  as  a  part  of  the 
creed  of  good  citizenship.  No  man  of  the  West  has  to  be  con- 
verted to  the  postulate  that  his  state  or  city  is  bound  for  a 
golden  future.  No  man  has  to  be  convinced  that  it  is  his  duty 
to  cherish  an  unclouded  faith  in  the  booming  future  of  that 
region,  and  to  promote  that  future  with  all  his  strength  and 
all  his  soul  —  and  often  with  all  his  money.  And  the  men  of 
the  West  and  the  Northwest,  and  the  Southwest,  and  the 
South,  do  that.  They  believe  in  their  sections,  and  they  are 
willing  to  back  that  belief  with  personal  service  and  with  cash. 
They  do  even  better  than  to  pool  their  cash  for  the  betterment 
of  their  cities  and  states  —  they  get  the  cash  from  people  in 
other  sections  of  the  country;  from  New  England  and  the 
East  generally.  It  is  the  fault  of  New  England  investors,  not 
that  they  have  invested  more  in  the  West,  but  that  they  have 
invested  less  in  New  England.  This  is  an  economic  fault,  not  a 
defect  in  patriotism  or  love  of  the  home  section.  The  economic 
fault  is  that  while  the  money  from  New  England  has  gone  to 
the  West  and  the  newer  sections,  to  build  factories  there,  it 
might  have  been  invested  for  the  same  purpose  here  at  home, 
and  earned  larger  dividends.  If  this  is  not  strictly  true  of  all 

[  55  ] 


New  England 

the  time  since  New  England  began  to  send  money  to  develop 
the  West,  as  I  suspect  it  is  not,  it  is  very  true  now,  and  has 
for  some  years  been  true.  There  may  have  been,  with  respect 
to  the  past,  a  broader  philosophy  than  we  are  now  inclined  to 
consider  that  controlled  the  diffusion  of  the  money  of  New 
England.  It  is  conceivable  that  the  industries  of  New  England 
had  better  chance  to  grow  without  the  stimulus  of  new  money 
put  into  them,  and  that  the  manufacturing  growth  of  the  West 
needed  the  nurture  of  more  ready  money  to  enable  it  to  get  a 
foothold  in  the  alien  and  unfriendly  and  untilled  soil.  But  now 
the  necessity  for  that  fertilization  has  passed,  with  the  firm  es- 
tablishment of  manufacturing  in  the  West  and  the  other  sec- 
tions of  the  country  which  were  first  farming  or  mining  regions, 
and  New  England  capital  is  free  to  consider  the  opportunities 
offered  in  its  home  fields.  Such  appears  to  be  the  case.  It  is 
now  observed  that  capital  is  more  kindly  inclined  toward  great 
manufacturing  opportunities  in  New  England;  and  it  is  sig- 
nificant that  the  more  notable  evidences  of  this  consist  in  enter- 
prises that  have  for  their  objects  the  opening  of  the  field  for 
the  general  benefit  of  all  kinds  of  manufacturing,  as  well  as  in 
the  establishment  of  specific  industries.  The  development  of  the 
unused  waterpowers  of  New  England  is  attracting  a  great 
amount  of  capital,  which  has  to  have  a  large  amount  of  faith 
to  insure  even  the  hope  of  dividends  away  off  in  the  future. 
The  money  that  is  going  into  transportation  enterprises,  gov- 
ernment and  state  money  as  well  as  private  funds,  shows  that 
there  is  an  abiding  faith  in  the  future  of  New  England  manu- 
facturing ;  which  is,  after  all,  the  very  best  warrant  that  there 
is  a  bright  future  for  it. 

There  was  a  time  when  New  England  was  the  workshop  of 
the  nation.  Then  everything  was  made  in  this  territory,  be- 
cause there  was  not  another  section  prepared  to  undertake  the 
work.  During  this  period  we  were  prone  to  indulge  the  belief 
that  New  England  was  divinely  ordained  to  make  all  the  goods 
the  country  needed,  of  whatever  kind  or  nature.  We  clung  to 
this  belief,  and  to  the  factories  which  were  responsible  for  it, 
far  too  long.  We  have  different  ideas  now,  which  have  been 
banged  into  us  by  the  people  who  discovered  that  there  is  a 

\  56  1 


Manufacturing  in  New  England 

certain  fitness  of  locality  for  the  manufacture  of  certain  goods. 
We  have  discovered  —  or  it  has  been  discovered  to  us  —  that 
machinery  consisting  more  of  iron  than  workmanship  should 
be  made  nearer  to  the  supply  of  iron  and  coal  than  we  are 
located;  and  that  machinery  and  utensils  wholly  used  outside 
of  New  England  must  be  made  nearer  to  their  base  of  sale 
and  use.  These  truths  we  have  learned,  but  it  took  us  a  long 
time  and  the  knowledge  came  hard  and  high.  On  the  other 
hand,  the  newer  sections  of  the  country,  when  they  began  to 
make  their  own  special  necessities,  were  carried  off  their  feet 
somewhat,  and  began  to  experiment  in  lines  that  had  been  de- 
veloped here  and  that  were  anchored  to  our  section  with  bonds 
formed  of  skilled  help  and  trade  advantages.  These  attempts 
were  failures,  many  of  them,  and  have  been  abandoned.  Both 
of  these  causes  of  deterioration  in  some  of  our  lines  of  manu- 
facture have  done  their  work,  and  now  we  see  the  balance 
struggling  toward  equipoise.  New  England  has  learned  what 
it  can  do  profitably,  and  what  the  other  sections  of  the  coun- 
try cannot  profitably  do,  in  the  way  of  manufacturing. 

Recently  developed  industrial  conditions  have  helped  to 
widen  the  industrial  horizon  of  New  England.  The  growth  and 
enrichment  of  the  newer  sections  of  the  country  have  immensely 
augmented  the  demand  for  our  staples,  and  tremendously 
stimulated  our  facility  to  conceive  and  inaugurate  new  indus- 
tries. We  have  begun  to  understand  that  the  great  manufac- 
turing asset  of  New  England  is  brains  —  the  brains  of  the  men 
who  have  the  money  and  the  courage  to  install  new  industries, 
and  particularly  the  brains  of  the  skilled  artisans  who  have 
been  bred  to  expertness  through  several  generations.  This 
brain  asset  will  operate  to  maintain  our  manufacturing  pres- 
tige as  long  as  it  is  itself  maintained.  This  suggests  one  of  the 
more  important  and  interesting  questions  connected  with  in- 
dustrial development  everywhere  —  the  training  of  specialized 
workmen  through  successive  generations.  This  development  is 
not  in  harmony  with  the  strict  republicanism  of  America,  and 
yet  it  is  becoming  one  of  our  industrial  assets.  The  special- 
izing of  industrial  knowledge  and  skill,  by  handing  craftsman- 
ship down  from  one  generation  to  another,  and  another,  is  one 

[  57  ] 


New  England 

of  the  chief  elements  of  strength  in  German  and  English  indus- 
trial life,  as  well  as,  in  some  sense,  one  of  the  elements  of  social 
weakness  in  those  countries.  In  America  its  influence  is  at 
present  amalgamated  with  social  and  socialistic  interests  in 
such  fashion  as  to  obscure  judgment  "of  it  as  an  industrial 
asset.  Its  visible  and  obvious  manifestation,  just  now,  gives 
New  England  a  decided  advantage  in  such  manufacturing  as 
involves  man-skill  in  mechanics  as  one  of  its  essential  elements. 
This  basic  element  has  built  up  some  of  the  most  important 
and  significant  establishments  in  the  world,  here  in  New  Eng- 
land, and  it  operates  to  make  it  forever  impossible  that  they 
shall  desert  New  England.  It  has  also  operated  to  build  up 
great  specialties  in  the  West.  Take  shoes :  There  are  now  sev- 
eral great  factories  in  some  of  the  middle  western  cities  made 
possible  by  drafting  New  England  managers  and  operators. 
The  great  automobile  factories  in  Michigan,  Ohio,  and  Indi- 
ana, drew  many  of  their  managers  and  skilled  iron  workers 
from  New  England — to  such  an  extent,  indeed,  that  New  Eng- 
land felt  the  embarrassment  of  a  shortage  in  those  lines  and 
has  taken  to  educating  the  immigrants  in  the  use  of  auto- 
matic machinery  and  in  many  of  the  processes  going  to  the 
making  of  tools,  firearms,  etc.  Engine  building  was  once  almost 
exclusively  a  New  England  industry,  but  has  gone  nearer  to 
the  iron  and  coal  supply,  and  taken  the  skilled  mechanics 
along  with  it.  Heavy  machinery,  such  as  engine  lathes,  is  made 
in  the  Middle  West  to  a  greater  extent  than  in  New  England. 
But  New  England  is  honeycombed  with  establishments  mak- 
ing tools  of  precision,  mechanics  tools,  machine  tools,  and 
machinery  that  is  either  consumed  in  this  or  near  territory  or 
that  requires  more  skill  than  pig  iron  in  its  construction.  This 
sort  of  manufacturing  is  growing.  The  manufacture  of  textiles 
that  require  skilled  labor  is  still  New  England's  specialty,  and 
is  growing  at  such  a  phenomenal  rate  as  to  justify  the  suppo- 
sition that  it  is  destined  to  remain  here  indefinitely.  Whenever 
it  is  noted  that  there  has  been  a  new  cotton  mill  projected  in 
the  South  (usually  financed  from  New  England)  it  is  easy  to 
turn  to  records  of  expansion  in  New  England  that  dwarf  the 
new  mill  almost  to  insignificance.  We  are  told  that  the  South 

F  58  1 


Manufacturing  in  New  England 

is  making  great  progress  in  manufacturing,  and  such  is  the 
fact.  We  all  rejoice  in  it,  and  would  not  make  comparisons 
that  seem  invidious.  Yet  to  show  how  far  New  England  is  in 
the  advance  it  is  only  necessary  to  state  that  there  was  in 
1905  in  the  six  New  England  states  $1,870,895,405  engaged 
in  manufacturing,  as  capital;  while  in  the  six  southern  states 
that  are  competing  in  the  making  of  cotton  goods  there  was 
$657,416,455  capital  engaged  in  manufacturing.  There  is  as 
much  capital  invested  in  the  textile  mills  of  New  England  as 
there  is  invested  in  all  kinds  of  manufacturing  in  these  six 
southern  states. 

On  the  other  hand,  there  is  almost  exactly  as  much  manu- 
facturing capital  in  New  York  as  in  all  New  England,  nearly 
as  much  in  Pennsylvania,  nearly  half  as  much  in  Illinois, 
nearly  half  as  much  in  Ohio,  more  than  a  third  as  much  in  the 
little  state  of  New  Jersey.  More  than  half  of  the  manufactur- 
ing capital  in  New  England  is  in  Massachusetts,  and  about 
one-third  in  Connecticut  and  Rhode  Island.  New  Hampshire, 
Maine,  and  Vermont  have  together  but  about  one-sixth  of  the 
manufacturing  capital  of  New  England.  These  three  northern 
New  England  states  have  been  essentially  grazing  and  farm- 
ing states.  Vermont  remains  such.  New  Hampshire  has  big 
mills  on  the  Merrimac  river,  is  developing  an  enterprising 
policy  with  respect  to  waterpower,  is  showing  definite  gains 
in  number  of  establishments  and  capital  employed,  and  is  get- 
ting industries  that  esteem  freedom  from  trade-union  condi- 
tions and  a  policy  of  settling  help  in  homes  and  drawing  from 
the  farming  population.  Maine  has  great  paper  mills,  and  a 
considerable  textile  industry.  It  has  also  a  lumber  and  wood 
manufacturing  industry  of  considerable,  but  scarcely  growing, 
extent.  The  waterpower  in  Maine  is  destined  to  make  of  it  one 
of  the  greatest  manufacturing  states  in  the  Union. 

The  manufacturing  story  of  these  three  northern  states, 
reserving  a  section  of  the  southern  portion  of  New  Hampshire, 
is  soon  told,  and  is  not  very  distinctive  or  inspiring.  In  Ver- 
mont there  are  great  quantities  of  marble  and  granite  quar- 
ried, but  only  a  small  proportion  of  it  subjected  to  such 
working  as  would  justify  reckoning  the  capital  employed  as 

f  59  1 


New  England 

being  manufacturing  capital;  and  there  are  large  scale- 
making  plants  in  two  towns.  In  New  Hampshire,  aside  from 
the  immense  textile  and  shoe  factories  at  Manchester,  there  are 
some  notable  industries,  and  there  is  evidence  in  many  cities 
and  towns  of  systematic  endeavor  to  increase  manufacturing 
in  them.  During  the  past  few  years  there  has  been  a  rather 
notable  drift  of  shoe  manufacturers  to  New  Hampshire  towns. 
Perhaps  the  most  consequential  of  these  came  from  Chicago, 
and  is  therefore  an  addition  to  the  shoe  industry  of  New  Eng- 
land which  in  some  measure  compensates  for  the  factories  that 
have  been  established  at  St.  Louis  and  Chicago,  with  New 
England  brains. 

In  machinery  New  England  has  surrendered  the  lead,  so  far 
as  bulk  and  value  of  output  is  concerned,  to  the  middle  wes- 
tern states,  for  the  very  good  reason,  as  stated,  that  large 
machinery  and  cars  must  be  made  near  to  the  sources  of  iron 
and  coal.  But  in  all  the  lines  of  the  manipulation  of  iron  and 
steel  in  which  skilled  labor  counts  for  more  than  raw  material 
New  England  is  yet  either  in  the  lead  or  well  up  in  front. 
Worcester  is,  for  example,  the  recognized  center  of  the  manu- 
facture of  metal-working  machines  and  tools.  At  Athol,  Mass., 
there  is  the  great  Starrett  factory,  an  establishment  unique  in 
the  world,  making  about  1200  varieties  of  mechanics  fine 
tools,  the  great  majority  of  which  were  invented  or  devised 
by  the  proprietor  of  the  works,  and  much  of  the  machinery 
used  in  the  factories  is  also  of  his  design  and  conception.  This 
man  has  discovered  a  great  need  in  American  craftsmanship, 
and  has  supplied  that  need.  His  products  are  sold  in  every 
city  in  the  world,  and  are  the  synonym  for  accuracy.  They 
have  lifted  New  England  workmanship  to  a  higher  plane,  and 
they  have  put  exact  workmanship  the  world  over  on  a  higher 
plane.  There  are  many  such  establishments  in  New  England, 
where  tools  for  the  workers  of  the  world  are  devised  and  made. 
The  Morse  Twist  Drill  works  at  New  Bedford  is  another  il- 
lustration. Twist  drills  were  originated  there,  and  from  that 
shop  have  sprung  all  the  other  concerns  in  the  country  now  en- 
gaged in  the  business  of  making  twist  drills.  The  making  of 
boots  and  shoes  by  machinery,  and  the  machines  to  make 

[  60  ] 


Manufacturing  in  New  England 

them,  originated  in  New  England,  and  the  greatest  of  the  fac- 
tories in  existence  twenty  years  ago  started  in  the  kitchen  of 
the  owner's  father.  The  development  of  the  textile  industry, 
and  of  the  machinery  to  make  all  kinds  of  fabrics,  was  in  New 
England,  and  we  now  hold  unchallenged  the  lead  in  these 
lines.  These  four  great  staple  lines  —  machinery  and  tools, 
boots,  shoes  and  leather,  paper,  and  textiles,  dominate  New 
England  industries  now,  sharing  their  supremacy  only  with 
agriculture  and  waterpower,  both  in  their  infantile  stage  of 
development.  We  make  over  one-half  the  textiles,  textile  ma- 
chinery, boots  and  shoes,  fine  paper,  wire  goods,  cutlery,  fire- 
arms, ammunition,  rolled  brass,  rubber  goods,  clocks,  plated- 
ware,  rolled  copper,  silverware,  and  a  long  list  of  other  goods ; 
and  we  lead  in  so  many  things  that  the  list  of  them  would  read 
like  a  business  directory. 

The  vital  thing  for  New  England,  just  now  that  it  has  de- 
cided to  take  full  advantage  of  its  destiny,  is  what  it  is  to  be 
rather  than  what  it  is,  or  what  it  has  been.  Circumstances  un- 
related to  personal  or  sectional  enterprise  have  had  much  to 
do  with  establishing  many  of  the  great  industries  of  New 
England.  There  was,  at  the  time  they  came  into  being,  no 
other  place  for  them  to  take  root.  They  located  here  because 
this  was  the  only  section  available  for  any  kind  of  manufac- 
turing, because  here  were  the  only  possible  operatives,  be- 
cause here  were  the  only  known  and  available  waterpowers, 
and  because  here  were  the  only  markets.  They  have  stayed 
here  partly  because  they  were  here,  and  partly  because  New 
England  enterprise  has  kept  them  here.  It  is  only  a  few  years 
since  there  was  no  capital  outside  of  New  England,  and  it  is 
only  within  two  generations  that  New  England  capital  has 
become  vagrant  and  gone  to  other  sections  to  establish  manu- 
facturing. It  went  along  with  the  pioneers  who  opened  up 
the  farms  of  the  West,  and  it  was  with  the  prospectors  who  dis- 
covered and  developed  the  great  mines  of  the  Northwest  and 
California.  While  it  was  thus  engaged,  some  of  it  was  sedu- 
lously building  up  the  factories  of  New  England.  In  the  wake 
of  capital  went  the  skilled  workmen  and  the  managerial  tal- 
ent. This  was  the  second  hegira  from  New  England  westward, 

[  61  ] 


Manufacturing  in  New  England 

and  it  sapped  New  England  as  the  first  flight  across  the  con- 
tinent of  the  land-hungry  Pilgrims  sapped  it,  though  not  as 
severely.  All  through  the  big  factories  of  the  West  there  is  the 
New  England  trail.  In  many  instances  the  whole  industry  will 
be  found  to  be  New  England's,  from  the  capital  to  the  opera- 
tive, including  the  patents  and  designs  at  the  bottom  of  the 
enterprise. 

Hopes  of  greater  manufacturing  development  in  New  Eng- 
land rest  upon  several  quite  recently  discovered  or  developed 
conditions.  Chief  among  these  is  the  new  realization  of  the  po- 
tential resources  of  New  England.  This  supplies  the  personal 
factor  which  is  to  create  the  enthusiasm  and  the  constructive 
promotive  energy.  There  would  never  such  a  sentiment  develop 
in  New  England  if  there  were  not  a  very  solid  basis,  a  per- 
fectly good  reason,  for  it.  There  must  be  dividends  in  sight  in 
order  that  New  England  enterprise  shall  deal  with  home  prob- 
lems. Promises  of  dividends  are  accepted  from  the  West,  but 
not  from  New  England.  The  guaranty  of  dividends  to  New 
England  money  and  enterprise  expended  in  New  England  has 
been  furnished  by. New  England  land  and  by  New  England 
trade  prospects.  Enterprise  has  had  its  eyes  dazzled  by  the 
Pacific  ocean,  and  its  imagination  daunted  by  the  necessity 
of  leaping  that  vast  ocean  or  turning  back  to  whence  it  origi- 
nated in  New  England.  It  has  divided  its  forces :  One  portion 
is  lingering  on  the  Pacific  slope  dallying  with  the  fascinating 
work  of  making  the  land  there  yield  dividends,  one  portion 
has  shut  its  eyes  and  vaulted  into  China,  Japan,  Corea,  the 
Philippines,  and  the  Hawaiian  islands ;  and  yet  another  por- 
tion, the  smaller,  has  turned  its  eyes  to  the  old  home  here  in 
New  England.  This  homing  moiety  is  being  joined  by  some 
homie-keeping  money  and  enterprise,  and  the  promotion  of  New 
England  is  under  way.  Much  of  this  promotive  spirit  is  going 
to  the  work  of  developing  the  New  England  land,  but  a  fair 
share  of  it  is  engaging  in  manufacturing  and  in  collateral  en- 
terprises, such  as  the  utilization  of  waterpowers.  This  latter 
is  assuming  great  proportions,  though  it  has  not  yet  come  out 
into  the  open  in  great  volume.  There  is  a  great  amount  of 
money  being  put  into  projects  for  the  harnessing  of  water- 

[  63] 


New  England 

powers  in  New  England,  and  there  are  vastly  greater  amounts 
being  prepared  for  by  the  securing  of  power  sites  along  the 
rivers.  These  enterprises  are  not  solely  for  the  benefit  of  man- 
ufacturing, but  primarily  for  the  furnishing  of  power  for 
street  railways  and  electric  light  plants.  They  all  contemplate 
the  selling  of  electricity  for  power  for  manufacturing,  as  their 
secondary  purpose,  and  expect  that  factories  will  group  them- 
selves within  economical  reach  of  their  feed  wires.  This  is  hap- 
pening wherever  these  power  schemes  have  developed  to  the 
point  of  selling  electricity.  It  is  interesting  to  note,  in  con- 
nection with  the  multiplication  of  waterpower-made  electricity, 
that  the  builders  of  steam  engines  have  bestirred  themselves, 
and  are  now  able  to  compete  with  this  electric  power,  if  steam- 
ing coal  can  be  supplied  at  reasonably  low  rates ;  all  of  which 
is  for  the  advantage  of  the  manufacturers  of  New  England, 
who  have  sorely  needed  cheaper  power.  The  vital  consequence 
of  this  move  to  utilize  waterpower  can  only  be  conceived  when 
the  tremendous  potential  energy  of  the  unused  waterpowers 
in  New  England  is  taken  into  account.  It  has  not  yet  been  es- 
timated with  any  degree  of  accuracy,  but  there  is  enough  of 
it  available  to  cut  the  power  cost  of  all  the  mills  in  New  Eng- 
land to  the  lowest  electrical  figure,  and  allow  for  their  expan- 
sion to  ten  times  their  present  capacity,  or  a  hundred  times. 
The  potential  power  of  the  water  that  runs  to  waste  in  New 
England  would  be  expressed  in  figures  that  would  stagger  the 
imagination,  if  it  could  be  expressed- at  all. 

It  is  not  the  fact  that  there  is  unlimited  potential  water- 
power  available  in  New  England  that  furnishes  the  chief  rea- 
son for  expecting  a  great  increase  of  manufacturing  in  New 
England.  There  is  no  one  principal  reason  that  can  be  stated. 
It  is  happening.  That  is  the  best  reason  of  all.  Market  condi- 
tions have  changed.  It  is  now  profitable  to  make  many  things 
in  New  England  that  have  heretofore  been  unprofitable.  We 
are  getting  to  consider  things  in  terms  of  costs,  instead  of  in 
terms  of  despondency  and  fear.  We  do  not  now  quail  when  we 
are  told  that  goods  must  be  produced  near  the  raw  material 
and  their  greatest  markets.  We  ask  ourselves  if  that  is  the 
whole  problem.  And  we  discover  that  it  is  not !  We  discover 

[  64  ] 


Manufacturing1  in  New  England 

that  there  is  the  problem  of  skilled  labor,  and  that  that  is  in 
many  instances  the  greatest  of  all  the  problems ;  and  we  dis- 
cover that  the  problem  of  transportation  is  after  all  but  one 
of  the  minor  manufacturing  problems.  When  a  Chicago  house 
finds  it  economical  to  establish  great  shoe  factories  in  New 
Hampshire,  ship  all  of  its  leather  from  the  West  and  ship  all 
of  its  shoes  to  Chicago,  we  are  inclined  to  disregard  the  trans- 
portation argument;  so  far,  as  least,  as  shoes  are  concerned. 
Nor  are  we  very  completely  possessed  by  the  argument  that 
raw  material  for  iron  manufactured  articles  must  be  near  at 
hand  when  we  learn  of  the  successful  return  to  smelting  in  cer- 
tain industries,  and  that  a  New  England  concern  can  receive 
steel  ingots  from  England  in  less  time  than  they  can  be  re- 
ceived from  Pittsburg,  and  often  at  less  cost. 

There  is,  and  always  has  been,  a  large  amount  of  unsup- 
ported assertion  in  the  arguments  against  certain  lines  of 
manufacture  for  New  England,  and  we  have  listened  to  them 
too  credulously.  This  credulity  has  disappeared,  and  with  it 
has  gone  much  of  the  difficulty  of  New  England  manufactur- 
ing. We  have  found  out  that  we  can  make  freight  cars  in  Massa- 
chusetts to  compete  with  Pittsburg  or  St.  Louis,  and  we  have 
gone  about  making  them.  We  have  found  that  the  West  cannot 
make  shoes  to  compete  with  us,  if  we  adopt  the  selling  schemes 
of  the  hustling  westerners,  and  we  are  doing  it.  We  are  begin- 
ning to  believe  that  we  may  as  well  again  begin  to  make  our 
furniture,  which  we  quit  doing  when  the  West  began  to  make 
a  systematic  business  of  what  we  had  been  doing  in  a  hap- 
hazard manner.  We  are  even  beginning  to  find  out  that  we 
can  make  many  articles  that  use  more  iron  than  brains,  de- 
spite the  shibboleth  of  the  necessary  propinquity  of  iron  ore 
and  coal.  We  can  pay  the  freight  on  cotton  from  Egypt  or 
India,  and  wool  from  Australia,  make  it  into  fabrics  and  ship 
it  back  to  those  very  countries,  at  a  profit.  We  are  discovering 
in  all  lines  of  manufacturing  that  all  of  the  physical  problems 
are  adaptable,  may  be  shaped  to  our  conditions,  but  that  the 
element  of  brains  and  skill  is  that  which  demands  our  atten- 
tion and  must  be  allowed  to  shape  our  manufacturing  policy. 

The  great  increase  in  the  demands  of  our  own  markets  is  a 

[  65  ] 


stimulus  that  has  operated  to  enlarge  our  manufactured  out- 
put, and  will  continue  thus  to  operate.  We  have  been  buying 
too  many  goods  that  we  might  as  well  make,  and  we  are  see- 
ing it.  It  is  a  little  ridiculous  for  the  workshop  of  the  nation 
to  buy  manufactured  goods  away  from  home,  as  we  are  now 
realizing  how  ridiculous  it  is  for  us  to  buy  garden  truck 
grown  in  the  South,  when  we  can  raise  it  much  cheaper  and 
market  it  in  much  better  condition.  We  are  getting  our  eyes 
open,  and  that  is  the  chief  reason  for  our  expectation  that  we 
are  to  have  a  great  revival  in  manufacturing  —  that  and  the 
fact  that  that  revival  has  already  begun. 

The  textile  industries  are  almost  the  greatest  in  the  entire 
United  States,  standing  in  the  rank  of  manufactures  next  after 
iron  and  steel.  The  textile  industries  are  far  and  away  the 
greatest  and  the  most  important  in  New  England.  Wool,  cot- 
ton, silk  —  the  preparation  of  the  raw  materials,  the  spin- 
ning of  the  yarns,  the  weaving  of  the  cloth,  the  dyeing  and 
finishing  of  the  fabrics  —  these  occupations  absorb  more  capi- 
tal and  employ  more  labor  in  New  England  than  any  other 
calling,  and  the  prosperity  of  these  vast  and  complex  interests 
is  most  vital  to  the  prosperity  of  every  form  of  New  England 
trade  and  commerce.  Broadly  speaking,  one-half  of  the  entire 
textile  activities  of  the  United  States,  exclusive  of  flax,  hemp 
and  jute,  are  conducted  in  the  region  lying  east  of  the  Hud- 
son river  and  north  of  Long  island  and  Vineyard  sound.  This 
preeminence  of  New  England  is  not  only  historic  but  it  is  un- 
shaken, almost  unchallenged.  The  past  thirty  years  have  wit- 
nessed a  wonderful  development  of  cotton  manufacturing  in 
the  southern  states,  and  of  wool  manufacturing  in  New  York, 
New  Jersey,  Pennsylvania  and  Ohio.  Yet  New  England  has 
not  only  maintained  its  ancient  leadership  but  in  some  points 
has  actually  strengthened  it.  Out  of  the  huge  sum  of  more  than 
a  billion  dollars  — to  be  exact,  $1,288,901,074  —  invested  as 
capital  in  textile  manufacturing  in  the  United  States,  no  less 
than  $624,096,904  is  contained  in  New  England  mills  and 
factories.  Out  of  a  total  annual  disbursement  of  $240,776,492 
in  wages  to  textile  operatives  no  less  than  $116,847,135  is 

f  66  1 


Manufacturing  in  New  England 

paid  to  New  England  people  and  deposited  in  the  savings 
banks  or  disbursed  for  purchases  in  the  shops  and  stores  or 
for  other  expenditures  in  the  six  New  England  states.  Out  of 
a  total  annual  value  of  product  for  the  textile  industries  of 
$1,152,097,433  New  England's  contribution  is  $522,821,440. 

New  England  comes  rightfully  enough  by  her  preeminence 
in  textile  manufacturing,  for  the  very  first  American  efforts 
to  produce  in  this  country  the  clothing  of  the  people  of  this 
country  were  made  here,  nearly  three  centuries  ago.  There 
were  skilled  English  "  clothiers  "  among  the  earliest  colonists, 
and  these  men  were  naturally  ambitious  to  practice  their  craft 
in  the  new  land.  The  first  fulling  mill  in  New  England  was 
built  in  Rowley,  Mass.,  by  artisans  who  came  over  in  1638, 
only  eight  years  after  the  founding  of  Boston.  Cotton, 
wool  and  linen  were  spun  and  woven  in  the  households  of 
these  New  England  pioneers.  As  Governor  Winthrop  wrote 
in  his  Journal  of  June,  1643:  "  Our  supplies  from  England 
failing  very  much,  men  began  to  look  about  them,  and  fell  to 
the  manufacture  of  cotton,  whereof  we  had  a  store  from  Bar- 
badoes,  and  of  hemp  and  flax,  wherein  Rowley,  to  their  great 
commendation,  exceeded  all  other  towns."  In  1645  the  General 
Court  of  Massachusetts,  moved  by  the  urgent  need  of  good, 
warm  clothes  in  this  inhospitable  climate,  passed  an  order  to 
encourage  the  establishment  of  flocks  of  sheep.  As  early  as 
1640  the  Massachusetts  lawmakers  had  offered  a  bounty  of 
three  pence  on  every  shilling's  worth  of  linen,  woolen  and 
cotton  cloth,  as  a  stimulus  to  native  manufacturing.  Later,  it 
was  ordained  that  all  persons  not  otherwise  employed  —  mean- 
ing particularly  women,  boys  and  girls  —  should  spin  for 
thirty  weeks  every  year  at  least  three  pounds  a  week  of  linen, 
cotton  or  wool.  The  General  Assembly  of  Rhode  Island,  in 
1751,  granted  a  bounty  of  one-third  of  the  appraised  value  on 
cloths  manufactured  in  the  colony  from  wool  or  flax,  but  at 
the  next  session  the  act  was  repealed  on  the  ground  that  "  it 
may  draw  the  displeasure  of  Great  Britain  upon  us,  as  it  will 
interfere  with  their  most  favorite  manufactory." 

Textile  manufacturing  as  we  now  know  it,  in  separate  es- 
tablishments as  a  regular  business  undertaking,  had  gained 

[  67  ] 


New  England 

no  real,  distinct  foothold  in  America  up  to  the  Revolutionary 
war,  but  the  primitive  form  of  household  manufacture  was 
practiced  throughout  the  country.  Homespun  woolen,  cotton 
and  linen  fabrics  were  the  every  day  apparel  of  the  people. 
All  other  cloths  were  imported  principally  from  England.  No 
such  thing  as  a  textile  factory  was  known,  in  1783,  in  the 
United  States.  The  textile  industry  as  we  now  understand  it 
is  entirely  the  outgrowth  of  the  national  period  of  American 
history.  Just  as  every  effort  of  the  colonists  to  make  them- 
selves self-sustaining  was  vigorously  discouraged  by  the  Brit- 
ish government,  so  after  political  independence  was  established, 
every  possible  obstacle  was  placed  in  the  path  of  industrial 
enterprise  in  the  new  republic.  Arkwright  had  introduced 
his  labor-saving  textile  machinery  in  Gr^at  Britain  in  1769, 
and  a  factory  system  was  being  steadily  developed.  This  sys- 
tem however  was  rigidly  kept  a  British  monopoly.  Skilled 
artisans  were  forbidden  to  take  out  of  the  country  to  the  New 
World  any  machinery,  or  even  models  or  drawings,  and  the 
baggage  of  all  departing  travelers  was  searched  for  such  con- 
traband material.  In  1790  however  there  came  over  from  Old 
England  to  New  England  a  man  named  Samuel  Slater,  who 
brought  these  models  in  the  form  of  ideas  in  his  head.  He  had 
worked  long  in  an  English  factory,  and  was  familiar  with 
machinery  and  methods,  and  he  reproduced  these  machines  in 
the  United  States.  From  his  achievement  dates  the  successful 
factory  production  of  cotton  fabrics  in  the  United  States,  and 
the  plants  established  in  Rhode  Island  by  Samuel  Slater  have 
been  in  operation  ever  since. 

The  first  of  American  wool  factories  was  that  of  the  Hart- 
ford Manufacturing  company  in  Connecticut,  which  was 
started  in  1788  through  subscriptions  raised  in  the  Connecti- 
cut towns.  It  found  its  products  undersold  by  English  goods 
which  could  easily  pay  the  duty  of  five  percent.  In  eight  years 
the  company  went  out  of  business.  Other  woolen  mills  were 
started  at  about  the  same  time  in  Stockbridge  and  in  Water- 
town,  Mass.,  and  in  1794  there  was  established  at  Byfield, 
Mass.,  the  first  woolen  factory  operated  by  power.  The  Fed- 
eral Census  of  1800  mentions  only  three  woolen  factories  and 

[  68  ] 


Manufacturing"  in  New  England 

credits  them  with  a  capacity  of  about  15,000  yards  a  year, 
and  a  valuation  of  about  $75,000.  By  1820  the  value  of  woolen 
fabrics  produced  in  the  United  States  had  risen  to  $4,413,068, 
and  of  cotton  fabrics  to  $4,800,000.  Each  Federal  Census 
since  1820  has  marked  an  increase,  until  the  latest  full  official 
figures  available  —  those  for  1905  —  show  that  the  product 
of  American  woolen  mills  has  reached  the  impressive  value  of 
$380,934,003,  and  of  cotton  mills,  $442,451,218. 

Four  hundred  and  eighty-three  million  pounds  of  wool  were 
consumed  in  the  American  wool  manufacture  in  1905,  and  of 
this  huge  amount  New  England  utilized  263,000,000  pounds. 
Out  of  the  total  value  of  wool  manufactures  amounting,  as 
stated,  to  $380,934,003,  New  England's  share  was  no  less  than 
$218,108,733.  American  woolen  factories  gave  employment  in 
all  to  179,967  operatives,  more  than  one-half  of  whom,  or  98,- 
263,  were  employed  in  the  New  England  states.  Out  of  a  total 
capital  of  $370,861,691  invested  in  the  wool  manufacture  in^ 
America,  no  less  than  $215,695,277  was  represented  in  the 
woolen  mills  of  New  England.  Massachusetts  is  preeminently 
the  leader  in  both  wool  and  cotton  manufacture  of  all  the 
states  of  the  nation. 

Of  a  total  of  $442,451,218  given  by  the  Federal  Census 
for  the  products  of  all  of  the  cotton  mills  of  the  country,  our 
New  England  mills  were  responsible  for  more  than  one-half,  or 
$224,072,562.  Out  of  a  total  number  of  operatives  of  310,458 
in  the  cotton  mills  of  the  country,  no  fewer  than  155,981  are  in 
the  New  England  factories  —  a  larger  percentage  of  the  total 
than  was  so  employed  in  1880.  The  total  capital  invested  in 
the  cotton  manufacture  was  set  by  the  Federal  Census  at  $605,- 
100,164,  of  which  $304,259,792,  or  more  than  one-half,  was 
attributed  to  New  England.  Massachusetts  alone  is  credited 
with  an  investment  of  more  than  $173,000,000.  Of  the  total 
number  of  cotton  spindles  reported  in  1905  of  23,000,000,  the 
New  England  states  had  14,000,000,  and  of  these  Massachu- 
setts had  more  than  8,000,000.  The  Bay  State  has  a  larger 
number  of  cotton  spindles  than  the  entire  South,  though  the 
increase  has  been  prodigious  in  South  Carolina,  North  Caro- 
lina and  Georgia. 

[  69  J 


Manufacturing1  in  New  England 

But  these  impressive  statistics  fail  to  convey  an  adequate 
idea  of  the  preeminence  of  New  England  in  the  great  branches 
of  textile  manufacturing.  Here  the  industry  was  first  devel- 
oped, and  here  it  has  attained  its  most  thoroughly  modern  or- 
ganization. The  Amoskeag  Manufacturing  company,  with  its 
mills  in  New  Hampshire  and  its  offices  in  Boston,  is  the  largest 
cotton  manufacturing  concern  in  the  world.  The  American 
Woolen  company,  with  its  offices  in  Boston  and  all  but  one  of 
its  thirty-six  mills  in  New  England,  is  the  largest  wool  manu- 
facturing concern  in  the  world.  Besides  these  two  giants  there 
are  many  other  large,  strong  concerns  equipped  with  the 
most  complete  machinery  and  managed  with  a  fine  blending 
of  New  England  sagacity  and  enterprise.  Manchester,  Lowell, 
Lawrence,  Fall  River,  New  Bedford,  Providence  —  these  are 
textile  centers  of  world-wide  reputation. 

A  great  deal  of  silk  is  used  in  the  fine  cotton-spinning  mills 
of  New  England,  and  this  section  of  the  country  contains  a 
distinctive  silk  manufacturing  industry  worthy  of  separate  rec- 
ognition as  a  textile  art.  There  was  little  else  than  household 
manufacture  of  silk  in  the  United  States  until  1810,  aside  from 
the  production  of  silk  laces  at  Ipswich,  Mass.,  and  the  mak- 
ing of  fringes,  coach  laces  and  tassels  at  Philadelphia.  The 
first  silk  mill  on  this  continent  was  a  New  England  enter- 
prise established  at  Mansfield,  Conn.,  in  1810,  for  the  manu- 
facture of  sewing  silk  by  waterpower.  In  1834  silk  dress 
trimmings  were  being  made  in  Boston,  and  a  sewing-silk  fac- 
tory had  been  started  in  Florence,  Mass.  A  sewing-silk  fac- 
tory was  in  operation  in  Dedham  in  1835,  and  in  1838  there 
were  laid  at  South  Manchester,  Conn.,  the  foundations  of 
the  great  silk  business  of  the  Cheney  Brothers.  That  Con- 
necticut enterprise  antedated  by  two  years  the  starting  of  the 
general  silk  manufacture  at  Paterson,  N.  J.  In  1848  the  man- 
ufacture of  sewing  silk  was  established  at  Holyoke,  Mass., 
and  in  1866  at  Willimantic,  Conn.  According  to  the  Federal 
Census  of  1905,  the  total  value  of  silk  manufactures  produced 
in  the  United  States  was  $133,288,072.  There  are  69  silk 
manufacturing  establishments  in  New  England,  with  a  capi- 
tal of  more  than  $24,000,000,  employing  about  12,000  wage- 

[  71  ] 


New  England 

earners.  New  England  leads  all  other  sections  of  the  country 
in  the  output  of  sewing  silk  and  machine  twist. 

To  sum  up  —  the  textile  interests  of  the  United  States  in 
1905  represented  a  total  capital  invested  of  $1,343,324,605. 
The  average  number  of  employees  was  739,239,  and  the  wages 
paid  amounted  to  $249,357,277.  The  total  value  of  the  prod- 
ucts of  the  textile  industries  was  $1,215,036,792.  Of  the  total 
capital  invested  in  the  textile  industry  about  one-half,  or  $629,- 
696,994,  is  invested  in  New  England,  nearly  one-half,  or  305,- 
474,  of  the  wage-earners  are  employed  here,  and  $116,847,135, 
or  almost  one-half  of  the  wages  paid,  come  to  the  working 
people  of  New  England. 

Second  in  rank  as  a  New  England  industry,  and  holding 
first  place  in  Massachusetts,  is  the  manufacturing  of  leather 
and  the  innumerable  other  products  that  are  fashioned  from 
this  indispensable  product.  New  England  makes  more  than  half 
the  shoes  that  are  produced  in  the  United  States,  and  Boston 
is  the  leading  shoe  and  leather  center  not  only  of  America  but 
of  the  world.  It  is  a  Massachusetts  industry  whose  history 
goes  back  nearly  three  centuries.  In  Boston  may  be  found 
the  offices,  factories  or  headquarters  of  more  than  one  thou- 
sand concerns  engaged  in  the  manufacture  or  sale  of  leather, 
hides,  footwear,  shoe  goods,  machinery,  and  the  accessories  of 
this  great  American  business,  whose  total  product  is  nearly 
$1,000,000,000  annually.  Twice  a  year  hundreds  of  buyers 
of  boots  and  shoes  and  leather  come  to  Boston  from  nearly 
every  state  of  the  Union,  to  examine  styles  and  purchase  their 
stocks  for  the  ensuing  season.  There  are  streets  in  the  shoe 
and  leather  district  of  Boston  that  are  wholly  devoted  to  this 
industry,  and  hotels  whose  patronage  at  certain  seasons  is 
almost  entirely  of  shoe  buyers  and  dealers.  Millions  of  dollars 
worth  of  products  of  tannery,  shoe  factory,  last  works  and 
machine  shops  change  hands  here  every  year,  and  are  shipped 
to  all  parts  of  America  and  to  every  civilized  country.  Mil- 
lions of  capital  are  represented  by  the  concerns  in  the  shoe 
and  leather  district  of  Boston.  Their  leading  men  are  on  the 
directorates  of  banks  and  railroads  and  active  in  the  affairs 

[  72  ] 


Manufacturing  in  'New  England 

of  clubs,  commercial  organizations  and  civic  and  welfare 
movements.  The  trade  is  represented  by  one  of  the  oldest  and 
most  progressive  organizations  in  the  country  —  the  New 
England  Shoe  and  Leather  association  —  and  in  a  social  way 
by  the  equally  energetic  Boston  Boot  and  Shoe  club.  Alto- 
gether, the  shoe  and  leather  section  of  Boston  is  one  of  the 
most  important  and  most  American  commercial-industrial 
nerve-centers  in  the  United  States. 

While  the  New  England  leather  and  boot  and  shoe  indus- 
try originated  in  and  was  for  a  long  time  confined  to  Massa- 
chusetts, it  has  now  become  firmly  established  in  several  of 
the  other  states,  notably  Maine  and  New  Hampshire.  Roughly 
speaking,  there  are  something  like  1000  tanneries,  shoe 
factories  and  plants  devoted  to  the  production  of  shoe 
machinery,  lasts  and  collateral  products,  in  this  section,  em- 
ploying about  100,000  workers  and  producing  some  $400,- 
000,000  worth  of  goods  annually.  There  are  more  than  100 
New  England  communities  in  which  some  part  of  this  indus- 
try is  carried  on.  Boston,  although  it  has  the  largest  single 
factory  in  the  world  producing  women's  shoes,  is  outranked 
as  a  footwear  producing  city  by  several  New  England  com- 
munities, the  chief  of  which  are  Brockton,  Lynn,  Haverhill 
and  Marlboro,  in  Massachusetts,  and  Manchester  and  Nashua 
in  New  Hampshire.  Brockton  is  the  leading  center  of  the  man- 
ufacturer of  men's  shoes  and  possesses  several  great  concerns 
whose  advertising  campaigns  have  made  their  product  known 
throughout  the  world.  It  has  more  than  30  shoe  factories, 
turning  out  20,000,000  pairs  of  shoes  valued  at  above  $50,- 
000,000  every  year,  and  in  addition  has  135  establishments 
producing  leather,  shoe  manufacturers  goods,  machinery, 
lasts,  etc.  The  industry  of  making  lasts  is  in  itself  a  most 
important  one  in  New  England.  Brockton  has  13,000  wage- 
earners  in  the  shoe  and  leather  industry,  receiving  $9,000,- 
000  in  wages  annually,  and  its  output  of  footwear  has  in- 
creased about  60  percent  in  the  last  decade.  Lynn,  the  second 
shoe  city  of  New  England,  makes  a  specialty  of  women's  foot- 
wear, and  in  this  line  leads  the  world.  It  has  more  than  100 
boot  and  shoe  manufacturing  concerns,  and  many  engaged  in 

[  73  ] 


New'  England 

the  manufacture  of  collateral  products,  its  annual  output  be- 
ing about  $55,000,000.  It  has  13,000  of  the  most  skillful  and 
best  paid  shoe  workers  in  the  world.  The  city  is  virtually  the 
arbiter  of  style  in  women's  footgear.  Haverhill  is  the  world's 
greatest  slipper  and  low-cut  footwear  city.  It  produces  20,- 
000,000  pairs  of  men's  and  women's  shoes  and  slippers,  valued 
at  $30,000,000,  annually,  and  a  large  part  of  this  product 
finds  its  way  into  the  foreign  markets.  It  is  a  noteworthy  fact 
that  Essex  county,  in  which  Haverhill  is,  manufactures 
about  one-seventh  of  the  footwear  produced  in  the  United 
States,  and  employs  in  its  numerous  shoe  factories,  tanneries 
and  allied  plants,  25,000  workers  who  receive  a  total  yearly 
wage  of  $20,000,000.  Marlboro,  another  thriving  Massachu- 
setts shoe  center,  ranks  as  the  fourth  city  in  shoe  manufactur- 
ing in  that  State  and  the  eighth  in  the  United  States.  It  has  a 
number  of  prosperous  concerns  whose  aggregate  annual  prod- 
uct has  a  value  of  $10,000,000.  In  the  last  decade  its  shoe 
business  has  increased  about  150  percent.  New  England 
"  shoe  cities  "  like  Rockland,  Whitman  and  Newburyport, 
Mass.,  Auburn  and  Gardiner,  Me.,  and  Manchester,  Nashua 
and  Dover,  N.  H.,  are  making  gratifying  strides  along  this 
line  of  industrial  development.  One  big  shoe  manufacturing 
concern  having  its  principal  factories  in  Manchester  and  its 
offices  in  Boston,  is  credited  with  a  total  production  today  of 
28,000  pairs  of  shoes  daily,  the  largest  output  of  any  shoe 
concern  in  the  world. 

From  the  fact  that  between  5,000,000  and  6,000,000  cases 
of  shoes  are  manufactured  in  New  England  annually  some 
idea  of  the  magnitude  of  this  business  may  be  gained.  The 
figures  of  shoe  production  are  only  half  of  the  story  however, 
for  New  England  still  holds  a  prominent  place  as  a  tanning 
center,  and  in  Boston  alone  are  the  financial  or  agency  head- 
quarters of  more  than  400  leather  and  hide  concerns  of  various 
kinds.  Peabody,  Mass.,  may  be  instanced  as  a  type  of  the 
growing  and  thriving  New  England  tannery  town,  with  its 
annual  product  of  about  $20,000,000.  This  is  the  world's 
greatest  sheepskin  tanning  center.  Woburn  and  Winchester 
are  also  important  leather  centers.  A  large  proportion  of 

[  74  1 


Manufacturing  in  New  England 

Massachusetts-made  leather  is  sold  through  the  Boston  mar- 
ket. Sole  leather  of  all  grades  and  the  various  kinds  of  upper 
leathers,  including  glazed,  are  made  in  New  England  tanneries. 
This  branch  of  the  industry  has  an  exceedingly  promising 
future.  The  most  advanced  methods  of  scientific  tanning  and 
modern  merchandizing  are  in  vogue,  and  the  establishment  of 
a  school  or  institute  of  tanning  is  among  the  possibilities  of 
the  near  future,  which  has  its  general  as  well  as  its  special 
significance. 

While  New  England  has  been  steadily  advancing  as  a  shoe 
and  leather  manufacturing  section,  it  has  also  taken  front 
rank  as  a  producer  of  the  machinery  by  means  of  which  the 
modern  boot  and  shoe  is  fashioned.  The  work  of  nearly  100 
of  these  wonderful  machines  is  necessary  to  the  production  of 
the  twentieth  century  shoe,  and  New  England,  through  the 
United  Shoe  Machinery  company,  has  a  practical  monopoly 
of  the  manufacture-of  these.  In  the  great  factories  at  Beverly, 
Mass.,  more  than  80,000  leased  shoe  machines,  valued  at  $40,- 
000,000,  have  been  turned  out  during  the  past  ten  years.  The 
company  employs  between  4000  and  5000  workmen,  and  earns 
more  than  $5,000,000  net  annually.  It  has  branch  establish- 
ments for  the  manufacture  of  its  machinery  in  several  for- 
eign countries. 

New  England  has  long  been  noted  as  the  home  of  paper 
making.  It  is  now  in  the  enjoyment  of  that  distinction,  but 
like  some  other  industries  the  making  of  paper  is  becoming  a 
national  rather  than  a  New  England  industry.  The  tremen- 
dous increase  in  the  demand  for  paper  for  newspapers,  maga- 
zines and  the  cheaper  grade  of  books,  due  to  the  invention 
of  typesetting  maclu'nes  and  the  perfected  printing  and  bind- 
ing machinery,  made  it  necessary  to  produce  these  grades  in 
quantities  beyond  the  capacity  of  New  England  forests. 
These  papers  are  made  of  wood  pulp,  and  the  forests  of  New 
England  were  not  sufficient  to  supply  the  demand.  While  the 
greatest  of  these  mills  are  yet  to  be  found  in  Maine,  there  have 
been  many  established  in  the  West,  and  in  some  southern 
states.  Book  paper  of  the  cheaper  grades  is  also  now  made  of 
wood,  and  it  naturally  followed  that  its  manufacture  would 

[  75  } 


New  England 

follow  the  big  wood-pulp  mills.  Much  of  this  grade  is  now 
manufactured  in  Ohio,  Michigan,  Wisconsin  and  West  Vir- 
ginia. Coated  paper  for  illustrated  books  and  commercial 
catalogues  and  booklets  is  made  in  the  West  and  South  in 
increasing  quantities  ;  and  there  are  some  mills  outside  of 
New  England  making  considerable  quantities  of  fine  papers 
for  writing  and  blank  books,  etc.  The  figures  of  paper  produc- 
tion since  1905  are  not  available,  but  it  is  surmised  that  the 
reports  of  the  Twelfth  Census  may  show  that  the  position  of 
New  England  in  the  matter  of  paper  has  changed,  though  it 
is  not  expected  that  our  supremacy  in  the  production  of  fine 
papers  will  be  disputed. 

The  years  from  1900  to  1905  showed  remarkable  results 
in  the  paper  industry  of  New  England.  The  number  of  mills 
decreased  from  233  in  1900  to  227  in  1905,  yet  the  capital 
invested  increased  from  $6,151,121  in  1900  to  $107,910,058 
in  1905,  about  76  percent.  The  improvement  of  methods  of 
manufacture  was  indicated  by  an  increase  in  production  from 
648,894  tons  in  1900  to  980,677  tons  in  1905,  51  percent 
and  from  fewer  mills. 

The  cost  of  raw  materials  used  in  1905  totaled  to  $42,420,- 
803.  The  value  of  paper  produced  amounted  to  $63,840,217. 
In  1905  Massachusetts  was  second  and  Maine  third  in  produc- 
tion of  paper  in  the  United  States.  Maine  showed  the  greatest 
gain  in  product,  increasing  in  five  years  73  percent.  Maine  was 
second  and  Massachusetts  third  in  amount  of  capital  invested, 
New  York  being  a  little  ahead  of  both.  The  increase  of  capi- 
tal invested  in  Maine  from  1900  to  1905  was  $23,800,755,  or 
136.2  percent,  the  greatest  ever  shown  by  any  state  of  the 
Union.  This  phenomenal  progress  was  due  to  the  waterpowers 
and  forests  that  state  was  able  to  produce.  The  tons  of  paper 
produced  in  1905  by  the  New  England  states  is  shown  by  this 
table  : 


New.         ™<-         Book        WgP-      ^     Sped,!- 


Maine    .....     215,300      44,000        67,390  89,900  13,400  2,500 

Massachusetts      .       19,500      80,700      123,500  16,000  27,000  29,000 

New  Hampshire  .       80,500           411         12,000  27,100  8,200  26 

Vermont    ....       34,400           948          4,400  ____  4,590  13,000 

Connecticut  .......           6,400          6,000  7,000  64,000  5,500 

f    76   1 


Manufacturing  in  New  England 

The  total  product  in  the  United  States  is  shown  in  the  fol- 
lowing table,  the  figures  being  compiled  in  May,  1910,  from 
the  most  authoritative  source.  Tons  are  the  units : 


News 

Writing 

Book 

Tissue      

Wrapping 

Board 

Specialties 

Building  and  Sheath 

Total  paper    .    .    .    . 


Yearly 

1,335,321 

210,017 

786,163 

102,539 

1,020,914 

1,190,214 

181,697 

368,903 

6,196,368 


Daily 

4266.2 
672.9 

2511.7 
327.6 

3261.7 

3802.6 
580.5 

1178.6 

16,601.8 


The  amount  of  all  kinds  of  paper  produced  in  the  five  New 
England  paper-making  states  is  shown  by  the  following 
table,  expressed  in  tons.  Rhode  Island  has  but  one  paper  mill, 
with  a  small  production,  the  figures  of  which  could  not  be 
easily  obtained.  In  addition  to  the  varieties  named  in  the  table, 
there  is  annually  made  in  New  England  1,209,646  tons  of 
"  coating,"  the  stock  used  as  the  base  for  coated  papers  of 
all  kinds.  There  was  produced  in  the  United  States  3,630,961 
tons  of  this  stock.  Massachusetts  made  51,676  tons  of  build- 
ing and  sheathing  paper: 


News 

Writ- 

Book 

Tissue 

Wrap- 

Board 

Special- 

ing 

ping 

ties 

Maine 

346,178 

14,685 

107,985 

117,062 

38,280 

Mass. 

15,932 

103,634 

128,737 

4^664 

9,171 

86,983 

22,129 

N.  H. 

124,480 

14,586 

8,764 

52,928 

10,830 

4,695 

Vermont 

17,059 

16,620 

14,523 

4,006 

14,711 

Conn. 

7,825 

5,008 

908 

4,632 

10,110 

94,057 

11,205 

The  city  of  Holyoke  has  a  world-wide  reputation  for  pro- 
ducing fine  and  book  papers.  It  is  the  greatest  paper  center  in 
the  world.  Its  mills  turn  out  200  tons  of  fine  paper  daily,  one- 
half  of  which  is  "  tub-sized,  loft-dried  "  writing  paper  —  about 
one-rhalf  of  this  variety  of  paper  made  in  the  United  States. 
Dalton,  Mass.,  is  famous  for  its  production  of  fine  paper,  and 
it  is  here  that  the  paper  for  government  bank  notes  is  manu- 

[  77  1 


Manufacturing'  in  New  England 

facturcd.  New  Hampshire  is  next  to  Maine  in  manufacture 
of  news  paper,  and  has  some  very  good  forests  and  water- 
powers.  Connecticut  and  Vermont  produce  straw  and  leather 
board  in  great  quantities,  but  are  barely  holding  their  posi- 
tion as  paper-producing  states.  While  the  industry  in  New 
England  has  shown  most  wonderful  progress  and  activity  in 
the  years  1900  to  1905,  since  1906  it  has  been  virtually  at  a 
standstill.  Low  water  in  rivers,  strikes,  tariff  changes  and 
business  depression  have  all  played  a  part.  The  great  com- 
panies manufacturing  news  and  book  paper  in  Maine  and 
Massachusetts  have  experienced  strikes  which  greatly  curtail 
their  production. 

The  bulk  of  the  jewelry  industry  of  this  country  is  confined, 
as  to  its  manufacture,  into  two  very  narrow  areas.  If  a  man 
stood  in  Jersey  City  and  could  draw  a  circle  with  a  radius  of 
ten  miles,  and  another  man  could  stand  in  Pawtucket,  R.  I., 
and  draw  a  similar  circle  with  a  radius  of  ten  miles,  there 
would  be  inclosed  within  those  circles  more  than  90  percent 
of  the  jewelry  and  silverware  manufactured  in  the  United 
States.  The  New  England  circle  contains  factories  producing 
goods  of  considerably  greater  value  than  the  New  Jersey  and 
New  York  circle.  By  the  census  of  1900  the  value  of  the  pro- 
ductions of  jewelry  in  Providence  totaled  about  $13,000,- 
000.  The  Attleboros  contributed  more  than  $8,000,000  more ; 
the  two  groups  together  producing  more  than  $21,000,000 
worth  of  jewelry  at  the  time  the  census  of  1900  was  taken. 
New  York  and  Newark  together  manufactured  a  little  more 
than  $16,000,000  worth  of  goods.  By  the  Rhode  Island  state 
census  of  1905,  Providence  was  shown  to  have  increased  its 
output  of  jewelry  to  $14,500,000,  while  its  output  of  silver- 
ware was  $5,500,000.  The  Attleboros  in  the  same  year  pro- 
duced $8,250,000  of  jewelry  and  more  than  $2,000,000  of 
silverware,  this  latter  output  having  increased  nearly  400 
percent  in  five  years.  There  are  something  more  than  two  hun- 
dred jewelry  factories  in  Providence,  and  ten  silversmith 
establishments ;  while  in  the  Attleboros  there  are  about  one 
hundred  jewelry  factories  and  ten  silversmith  establishments. 

f  79  1 


New  England 

These  concerns  employ  in  Providence  an  average  of  nine  thou- 
sand people,  and  in  the  Attleboros  an  average  of  five  thousand. 

The  manufacture  of  machinery  in  New  England  ought  to 
be  made  the  subject  of  a  chapter,  and  might  well  be  made  to 
fill  a  large  book.  The  facts  regarding  it  are  not  available. 
Few  of  the  large  concerns  know  about  aspects  of  the  business 
that  do  not  directly  apply  to  their  own  business,  and  the  Fed- 
eral Census  reports  are  either  too  diffuse  or  too  concrete  to 
make  them  available  for  the  purposes  of  this  book.  The  trade 
associations  have  not  specific  data  on  file  and  have  no  systems 
of  keeping  in  touch  with  the  development  of  the  business  of 
their  members. 

In  some  lines  New  England  manifestly  leads  the  world  in 
the  manufacture  of  machinery.  Nine-tenths  of  the  textile  ma- 
chinery made  in  the  United  States  is  made  in  New  England, 
where  it  was  invented.  The  great  establishments  at  Lowell, 
Whitinsville,  Hopedale,  Worcester  and  Hyde  Park,  dominate 
the  field  so  far  as  looms  and  other  textile  machinery  are  con- 
cerned, and  there  are  many  other  cities  and  towns  that  are 
interested  in  various  lines  of  machinery  used  in  textile  mills. 
The  Draper  concern  at  Hopedale  and  the  Whitin  corporation 
at  Whitinsville  have  made  themselves  notable  for  inaugura- 
ting advanced  living  conditions  for  their  employes,  and  have 
built  up  model  villages.  The  New  England  peculiarity  of  the 
great  textile  manufacturies  in  New  England  is  that  each  of 
them  originated  or  greatly  improved  the  machines  they  build. 
The  inventive  brains  in  the  Draper  family  and  among  their 
employes  have  revolutionized  the  weaving  of  certain  branches 
of  textiles.  The  Knowles  and  Crompton  inventors  have  evolved 
looms  that  have  in  their  sphere  worked  another  revolution, 
and  resulted  in  the  building  up  of  a  great  group  of  factories 
at  Worcester,  with  branches  at  Philadelphia,  and  elsewhere, 
unequaled  in  the  world.  At  Hyde  Park  the  more  modest  Staf- 
ford works  are  in  the  same  position,  of  having  some  special- 
ties that  are  necessary  for  the  successful  operating  of  certain 
textile  mills. 

There  are  everywhere  in  New  England  specialties  in  manu- 

I  80  ] 


Manufacturing  in  New  England 

facturing  that  have  risen  from  an  idea  in  the  mind  of  an  in- 
ventor to  concerns  that  dominate  in  the  world.  The  great  B. 
F.  Sturtevant  concern  at  Hyde  Park,  Mass.,  is  an  example. 
Conceived  in  the  brain  of  a  Maine  shoemaker  less  than  two 
generations  ago  it  has  come  to  be  the  largest  concern  in  its 
line  in  the  world,  and  is  making  a  line  of  apparatus  that  is 
essential  to  the  economic  operation  of  power  plants  every- 
where. Westfield,  Mass.,  makes  90  percent  of  the  whips  made 
in  the  United  States ;  Leominster,  Mass.,  makes  a  very  large 
proportion  of  the  shell  goods  manufactured  in  the  United 
States ;  Athol,  Mass.,  makes  three-quarters  or  more  of  the 
fine  mechanics  tools  made  in  the  world;  Worcester  makes  a 
great  proportion  of  the  wire  and  wire  goods  produced  in  the 
country;  Holyoke,  Mass.,  makes  half  or  more  of  the  fine 
papers  made  in  the  United  States ;  Dalton,  Mass.,  makes  all 
of  the  paper  the  government  uses  for  its  currency,  and  a  big 
proportion  of  the  high-class  ledger  paper;  Pittsfield,  Mass., 
leads  in  the  production  of  correspondence  papers  and  the  mak- 
ing of  boxed  writing  paper;  Mittineague,  Mass.,  has  earned 
distinction  for  making  paper  for  high-class  commercial  and 
correspondence  purposes;  Brockton  and  Lynn  mean  shoes  the 
world  over;  Manchester,  Fall  River  and  New  Bedford  mean 
cotton  goods ;  Plymouth  has  the  biggest  cordage  concern ; 
Quincy  is  noted  for  the  big  Fore  River  shipbuilding  concern ; 
Attleboro,  Mass.,  and  Providence  lead  the  world  in  jewelry, 
and  Providence  has  the  most  notable  silversmith  establishment 
in  the  country;  South  Framingham,  Mass.,  has  the  unique 
Dennison  concern,  making  a  bewildering  variety  of  fancy  and 
useful  articles  from  paper;  Rutland  and  St.  Johnsbury,  Vt., 
have  each  great  scale  works,  while  Rutland  and  its  vicinity 
produce  much  of  the  marble  quarried  in  the  country ;  and  this 
meager  symptomatic  list  might  be  prolonged  to  ten  times  its 
length. 

Printing  and  publishing  merits  special  reference.  In  value 
of  products  New  England  is  fourth  among  the  seven  groups  of 
states,  having  turned  out  in  1905  $46,764,193.  This  is  but 
about  one-fifth  of  the  gross  product  of  the  four  North  Atlan- 
tic states,  and  we  have  therefore  no  warrant  to  claim  leader- 

f  81  1 


New  England 

ship  in  bulk  of  output.  Considered  as  a  bulk  product  printing 
and  publishing  follows  the  population.  If  we  figure  this  product 
per  unit  of  population  it  is  found  that  New  England  is  well  at 
the  front.  And  if  we  consider  the  character  and  importance  of 
the  product  we  find  that  New  England  is  far  in  advance.  This 
satisfies  us  here  in  New  England,  where  are  located  several  of 
the  most  notable  printing  establishments  in  the  world. 

Canned  and  preserved  fish  may  be  mentioned  as  one  of  the 
New  England  specialties  that  have  done  something  material 
for  the  advance  of  civilization,  in  the  way  of  providing  good 
food  at  low  cost.  The  industry  began  in  Maine,  in  1843,  when 
lobsters  and  mackerel  began  to  be  canned  by  Treat,  Noble  & 
Halliday.  Maine  is  now  second  to  Alaska  in  amount  of  canned 
fish,  its  product  amounting  to  about  five  millions  annually. 
Massachusetts  produces  two-thirds  of  the  salted  fish  of  the 
United  States,  and  is  second  in  canned  and  preserved  fish. 
That  State  produces  three  times  the  amount  of  salted  cod 
produced  in  all  the  other  states.  In  this  particular  line  of 
business,  Nature  has  favored  New  England  by  giving  her  the 
Atlantic  ocean  for  a  fish  preserve. 

To  focus  the  matter  of  the  relative  standing  and  progress 
of  the  New  England  states  in  manufacturing  as  clearly  as 
possible,  we  quote  briefly  from  the  reports  of  the  Federal  Cen- 
sus for  1905,  the  latest  available  figures  for  all  the  states. 
None  of  the  New  England  states,  save  Massachusetts,  publish 
adequate  manufacturing  statistics  annually. 

Between  the  census  of  1900  and  that  of  1905  the  number 
of  manufacturing  establishments  in  Massachusetts  decreased 
206,  or  1.9  percent.  The  capital  however  increased  $184,081,- 
172,  or  23.5  percent;  the  average  number  of  wage-earners, 
50,165,  or  11.4  percent;  the  wages  $37,110,670,  or  19  per- 
cent; and  the  value  of  products,  $216,465,612,  or  23.8  per- 
cent. The  reports  of  the  Twelfth  Census  show  29,180  estab- 
lishments in  Massachusetts,  with  497,448  wage-earners,  and 
products  valued  at  $1,035,198,989.  Of  these  establishments, 
10,929  —  employing  438,234  wage-earners  and  manufactur- 
ing products  valued  at  $907,626,439  —  are  comparable  with 

[  82  ] 


Manufacturing  in  New  England 

the  class  of  establishments  included  in  the  census  of  1905, 
when  the  number  of  establishments  reported  was  10,723,  the 
number  of  wage-earners,  488,399,  and  the  value  of  the  prod- 
ucts, $1,124,092,051.  The  56  places  of  8,000  or  more  inhabi- 
tants in  1900,  classed  as  the  urban  districts,  contained  76  per- 
cent of  the  total  population  in  the  State  at  the  United  States 
census  of  1900  and  76.6  percent  at  the  State  census  of  1905, 
and  this  proportion  of  the  population  is  fully  sustained  by 
the  comparative  importance  of  these  places  in  manufactures. 
The  urban  districts  contained  77.8  percent  of  the  establish- 
ments in  both  1900  and  1905.  The  capital  invested  in  the  ur- 
ban establishments  formed  83.5  percent  of  the  total  for  the 
State  in  1905  and  83.4  percent  in  1900.  The  number  of  wage- 
earners  formed  81.4  percent  and  81.1  percent  for  the  two 
censuses,  respectively,  while  the  value  of  products  for  these 
districts  was  82.9  percent  in  1905  and  82.1  percent  in  1900. 
The  urban  districts  showed  the  larger  rates  of  increase  in  all 
items  except  for  the  number  of  women  employed,  and  their 
wages,  and  miscellaneous  expenses. 

The  increase  in  the  number  of  establishments  in  Connecti- 
cut shown  by  the  1905  census  figures  was  95,  or  2.8  percent. 
The  total  capital  increased  $74,076,655,  or  24.8  percent,  and 
the  value  of  products,  $53,975,941,  or  17.1  percent;  while  the 
average  number  of  wage-earners  increased  21,872,  or  13.7  per- 
cent, and  the  total  wages,  $14,548,566,  or  19.8  percent.  The 
continued  prosperity  of  the  State  is  also  shown  by  the  fact 
that  whereas  in  1900  the  average  number  of  wage-earners  em- 
ployed in  all  the  manufacturing  and  mechanical  establishments 
of  the  State,  including  neighborhood  industries  and  hand 
trades,  was  176,694  in  1905,  the  number  employed  in  the  estab- 
lishments conducted  under  thefactorysystemalonewas!81,605, 
the  increase  being  4,911,  or  2.8  percent.  In  1900  the  number 
of  wage-earners  in  factories  was  159,733,  an  increase  of  21,- 
872,  or  13.7  percent.  The  value  of  products  for  all  manufac- 
turing and  mechanical  establishments  in  1900  was  $352,824,- 
106,  while  in  1905  for  factories  alone  it  was  $369,082,091,  the 
increase  being  $16,257,985,  or  4.6  percent.  The  value  for  the 
factories  in  1900  was  $315,106,150,  and  the  increase,  $53,- 

[  83  ] 


Manufacturing  in  New  England 

975,941,  or  17.1  percent.  Of  the  factories  reported  in  1905, 
57.5  percent  were  in  the  urban  districts,  while  in  1900  the 
percentage  of  urban  establishments  was  54.3.  The  value  of  the 
products  manufactured  in  the  urban  districts  was  66.7  per- 
cent of  the  total  for  the  State  in  1905,  and  66.6  percent  in 
1900. 

The  1905  census  figures  show  a  decrease  of  61  in  the  num- 
ber of  Rhode  Island  manufacturing  establishments.  The  total 
capital  however  increased  $38,999,769,  or  22  percent,  and  the 
value  of  products,  $36,559,201,  or  22.1  percent;  while  the 
average  number  of  wage-earners  increased  9,121,  or  10.3  per- 
cent, and  the  total  wages,  $7,117,536,  or  19.8  percent.  The 
reports  of  the  Twelfth  Census  show  4,189  establishments  in 
Rhode  Island,  with  98,813  wage-earners,  and  products  valued 
at  $184,074,378.  Of  these  establishments,  1,678  —  employing 
88,197  wage-earners  and  manufacturing  products  valued  at 
$165,550,382  —  are  comparable  with  the  class  of  establish- 
ments included  in  the  census  of  1905,  when  the  number  of  es- 
tablishments reported  was  1,617,  the  number  of  wage-earners, 
97,318,  and  the  value  of  the  products,  $202,109,583.  Of  the 
factories  in  the  State,  16.5  percent  were  in  rural  districts  in 
1905,  as  compared  with  17.5  percent  in  1900.  The  value  of 
products  in  rural  districts  was  18.2  percent  of  the  total  for 
the  State  in  1905  and  17.1  percent  in  1900.  The  percentages 
of  increase  in  capital,  total  average  number  of  wage-earners, 
total  wages  and  value  of  products  were  greater  for  the  rural 
than  for  the  urban  localities. 

Between  the  census  of  1900  and  that  of  1905  the  number 
of  manufacturing  establishments  in  Maine  increased  267.  The 
capital  increased  $29,700,035,  or  26.1  percent,  and  the  value 
of  products,  $31,061,099,  or  27.5  percent;  while  the  average 
number  of  wage-earners  increased  5,044,  or  7.2  percent,  and 
the  amount  paid  for  wages,  $6,961,024,  or  27.1  percent.  The 
reports  of  the  Twelfth  Census  show  6,702  establishments  in 
Maine,  with  74,816  wage-earners,  and  products  valued  at 
$127,361,485.  Of  these  establishments,  2,878  —  employing 
69,914  wage-earners  and  manufacturing  products  valued  at 
$112,959,098  —  are  comparable  with  the  class  of  establish- 

f  85  1 


New  England 

ments  included  in  the  census  of  1905,  when  the  number  of  es- 
tablishments reported  was  3,145,  the  number  of  wage-earners 
74,958,  and  the  value  of  the  products  $144,020,197.  Rural 
districts  contained  77.9  percent  of  the  establishments  reported 
in  1905  and  75.4  percent  in  1900.  The  value  of  the  products 
of  rural  establishments  was  67.5  percent  of  the  total  for  the 
State  in  1905  and  64.2  percent  in  1900.  The  actual,  as  well  as 
proportionate,  increases  in  capital,  number  of  wage-earners, 
wages  and  value  of  products  were  greater  for  the  establish- 
ments in  the  rural  districts  than  for  those  in  the  urban. 

Between  the  census  of  1900  and  that  of  1905  the  number  of 
manufacturing  establishments  in  New  Hampshire  decreased 
153.  The  capital,  however,  increased  $17,349,047,  or  18.8 
percent,  and  the  value  of  products,  $16,020,101,  or  14.9  per- 
cent. The  average  number  of  wage-earners  decreased  2,280, 
or  3.4  percent,  but  the  amount  paid  for  wages  increased  $1,- 
843,572,  or  7.1  percent.  Urban  districts  contained  33.6  per- 
cent of  the  establishments  reported  in  1905,  and  32.3  percent 
in  1900.  The  value  of  the  products  of  urban  establishments 
was  59.5  percent  of  the  total  for  the  State  in  1905,  and  58.1 
percent  in  1900. 

The  number  of  manufacturing  establishments  in  Vermont 
decreased  from  1,938  in  1900  to  1,699  in  1905.  The  total 
capital  increased  $20,159,101,  or  47.4  percent,  and  the  value 
of  products,  $11,568,383,  or  22.5  percent.  The  average  num- 
ber of  wage-earners  increased  4,927,  or  17.5  percent,  and  the 
total  wages,  $3,794,511,  or  33.2  percent.  The  percentages  of 
increase  were  greater  for  the  rural  than  for  the  urban  dis- 
tricts. Of  the  establishments  reported,  86.9  percent  were  in 
rural  districts  in  1905  and  85.3  percent  in  1900.  Of  the  total 
number  of  wage-earners,  81  percent  were  credited  to  rural 
districts  in  1905  and  80.1  percent  in  1900. 


86 


New  England  Waterpowers 

THE  splendid  rivers  and  streams  of  New  England  are 
today  yielding  only  about  48  percent  of  their  total  available 
waterpower.  It  was  the  statement  of  Charles  P.  Steinmetz, 
consulting  engineer  of  the  General  Electric  company,  made  in 
1909,  that  in  Massachusetts  alone  "  more  waterpower  goes 
to  waste  annually  than  is  found  in  Niagara  itself."  In  the  six 
New  England  states  there  are  approximately  120  rivers 
and  streams  available  for  power,  and  according  to  the  esti- 
mate of  engineers  these  have,  in  addition  to  the  power  they 
were  generating  in  1909,  a  total  of  509,500  horsepower  im- 
mediately available;  and  with  the  construction  of  storage 
basins  a  grand  total  of  676,000. 

As  the  United  States  census  shows,  in  waterpower  devel- 
oped and  potential,  New  England  ranks  close  to  the  highest 
of  the  various  sections  of  the  country.  A  special  census  of  the 
developed  waterpowers  in  the  Union,  made  in  1908,  places 
Maine  third  in  the  list  of  numbers  developed  in  each  state. 
New  York  heads  the  line,  with  a  development  of  885,862 
horsepower,  the  Niagara  powers  on  the  New  York  side  con- 
tributing largely  to  this  figure.  California  is  the  second,  with 
a  total  of  466,777,  over  1070  wheels  —  a  development  in  com- 
paratively recent  years.  Maine  secures  her  place  as  third, 
with  343,096  horsepower,  over  2797  wheels.  Of  other  New 
England  states  Massachusetts  ranks  second  to  Maine,  with 
230,182  horsepower,  over  2749  wheels  ;  New  Hampshire  comes 
next,  with  183,167  horsepower,  over  1793  wheels ;  Connecti- 
cut next,  118,145  horsepower,  1546  wheels;  Vermont  next, 
90,672  horsepower,  1047  wheels;  Rhode  Island  last,  37,165 
horsepower,  387  wheels. 

These  census  returns  showed  a  total  of  31,537  developed 
waterpowers  in  the  whole  country,  602  of  which  are  of  a 
capacity  of  one  thousand  horsepower  or  more.  The  whole 

I  87] 


New  England 

number  were  generating  a  total  horsepower  of  5,356,680, 
over  52,827  wheels ;  or  an  average  development  per  wheel  of 
about  one  hundred  horsepower.  The  six  New  England  states 
had  5700,  generating  a  total  of  1,032,427  horsepower,  over 
10,325  wheels.  These  5700  powers  were  thus  distributed: 


States 
Connecticut 
Maine 

Massachusetts 
New  Hampshire 
Rhode  Island 
Vermont 


Waterpowers 

893 
1222 
1370 

876 

191 
1148 


5700 


10,325 


Horsepower 

118,145 

343,096 

260,182 

183,167 

37,165 

90,672 

1,032,427 


The  installations  by  districts  and  drainage  area  are  shown 
in  this  table: 


State 
Connecticut 


Maine 


Massachusetts 


New  Hampshire 
« 

Rhode  Island 
Vermont 


Rivers 

Connecticut  River 
Thames  River 
Housatonic  River 
Minor  Streams 
St.  John  River 
St.  Croix  River 
Penobscot  River 
Kennebec  River 
Androscoggin  River 
Presumpscot  River 
Saco  River 
Minor  Streams 
Merrimac  River 
Connecticut  River 
Blackstone  River 
Thames  River 
Housatonic  River 
Hudson  River 
Minor  Streams 
Saco  River 
Merrimac  River 
Connecticut  River 
Minor  Streams 
Blackstone  River 
Thames  River 
Minor  Streams 
Connecticut  River 
Hudson  River 
Lake  Champlain  (Richelieu 


88 


Wheels 

Horsepower 

490 

33,101 

478 

45,214 

364 

31,685 

214 

8,145 

147 

13,681 

89 

20,500 

518 

70,454 

659 

63,936 

590 

101,355 

179 

20,569 

169 

22,302 

446 

30,299 

589 

71,250 

1117 

123,309 

182 

14,111 

88 

8,499 

138 

14,206 

54 

5,245 

581 

23,561 

68 

3,030 

877 

90,082 

574 

50,977 

187 

16,978 

156 

17,324 

1 

25 

230 

19,816 

927 

85,512 

118 

5,160 

River)  971 

79,604 

1,089,930 


New  England  Waterpowers 

These  figures  are  drawn  from  the  water-supply  papers  of 
the  United  States  Geological  Survey :  No.  234,  "  Papers  on 
Conservation  of  Water  Resources."  Prof.  M.  O.  Leighton 
treats  the  undeveloped  waterpowers  in  the  same  number,  and 
presents  schedules  giving  the  amount  of  waterpower  accord- 
ing to  three  classifications:  (1)  that  which  may  be  produced 
by  the  minimum  flow,  (2)  the  assumed  maximum  development, 
(3)  the  additional  power  that  may  be  recovered  by  develop- 
ing the  available  storage  capacity  in  the  upland  basis  and 
using  stored  water  to  compensate  the  low-water  periods. 
These  schedules,  as  he  states,  disclose  "what  will  be  the 
maximum  possibilities  in  the  day  when  our  fuel  shall  have 
become  so  exhausted  that  the  price  thereof  for  production  of 
power  is  prohibitive,  and  the  people  of  the  country  shall  be 
driven  to  the  use  of  all  the  waterpower  that  can  reasonably 
be  produced  by  streams,"-  — a  time  not  long  far-distant,  in 
the  estimation  of  some  economists.  The  total  power  available 
in  the  surveyed  parts  of  the  country,  including  storage,  is 
given  as  53,000,000  horsepower.  Taking  this  as  one-fourth 
of  the  whole,  since  the  topographical  surveys  cover  only  one- 
fourth  of  the  total  area  of  the  country,  Professor  Leighton 
places  the  total  power,  with  practical  maximum  storage,  at 
212,000,000  horsepower.  Otherwise  computed,  by  taking  the 
ratio  of  increase  of  power  available  for  storage  in  the  several 
parts  surveyed  and  applying  this  to  the  ratio  of  increase  in 
unsurveyed  and  similar  country  in  those  regions,  he  reaches 
a  grand  total  of  230,800,000  horsepower.  Calculated  either 
way,  it  is  safe  to  assume  that,  as  he  says,  "were  all  practi- 
cable storage  sites  utilized  and  the  water  properly  applied 
there  might  be  established  eventually  in  the  country  a  total 
power  installation  of  at  least  200,000,000  horsepower,  and 
probably  much  more."  Professor  Leighton  gives  the  data 
of  this  dazzling  total  of  potential  waterpowers  over  the  vari- 
ous drainage  areas  of  the  country  by  districts  or  divisions. 
New  England  is  included  in  the  Northern  Atlantic  division  — 
from  St.  Johns  to  Cape  Henry,  Virginia,  —  which  comprises 
the  New  England  states,  New  York,  New  Jersey,  Pennsyl- 
vania, Delaware,  Maryland,  West  Virginia  and  Virginia.  This 

[  89  ] 


New  England 


division  (exclusive  of  Pennsylvania,  the  figures  for  which  had 
not  been  received  at  the  publication  of  the  report)  shows  a 
minimum  horsepower  of  1,712,050,  and  an  assumed  maximum 
development  of  3,186,600.  The  estimated  proportion  con- 
tributed by  the  New  England  rivers  appears  in  these  figures : 


River 

St.  John 

St.  Croix 

Penobscot 

Kennebec 

Androscoggin 

Saco 

Merrimac 

Connecticut 

Blacks  tone 

Thames 

Housatonic 


States  drained 


Maine 


Maine,  New  Hampshire 

New  Hampshire,  Massachusetts 
Vermont,  N.  H.,  Mass.,  Conn. 
Massachusetts,  Rhode  Island 
Massachusetts,  Connecticut,  R.  I. 
New  York,  Massachusetts,  Conn. 


Horsepower 

Assumed 

Minimum 

maximum 

development 

36,500 

73,800 

28,700 

49,000 

157,000 

298,000 

144,000 

284,000 

168,000 

218,000 

20,900 

69,000 

111,000 

190,000 

230,000 

491,000 

5,280 

12,700 

14,400 

28,600 

43,100 

66,200 

952,880        1,780,300 


The  natural  advantages  of  the  New  England  waterpowers, 
and  their  exceptional  richness,  are  readiest  seen  through  a 
survey  of  the  rivers  of  the  six  states  from  source  to  mouth. 
Such  a  study  in  part  has  been  made  in  recent  years  by  engi- 
neers of  the  United  States  Geological  Survey,  and  the  latest 
results  are  embodied  in  the  reports  of  Henry  A.  Pressey  on 
"  Water  Powers  in  the  State  of  Maine,"  and  of  H.  K.  Bar- 
rows, district  hydrographer,  on  "  Surface  Water  Supply  of 
New  England"  (Atlantic  coast  of  New  England  drainage), 
issued  respectively  in  1902  and  1906  in  the  valuable  series  of 
water-supply  papers ;  and  in  these  illuminating  documents 
we  have  accurate  data. 

Beginning  with  Maine,  as  the  richest  of  all  in  waterpowers, 
we  find  this  unqualified  statement  at  the  outset  of  Mr. 
Pressey's  report  —  that  "no  other  tract  of  country  of  the 
same  extent  on  the  continent  is  so  well  watered ;  supplied 
with  lakes  and  streams  well  distributed."  Here  are  five  princi- 
pal lake  chains  or  systems,  large  lakes  connected  by  rivers  and 
discharging  into  main  channels  which  convey  their  accumu- 
lated waters  to  the  sea.  The  elevation  of  these  lake  systems  — 

[  90  1 


New  England  Waterpowers 

high  for  lakes  so  near  tidewater  —  their  location  largely 
near  the  headwaters  of  the  streams,  the  short  courses  of  the 
outflowing  rivers,  and  the  lakes  acting  as  regulators  of  their 
flow,  combine  to  make  the  rivers  of  Maine  "  the  finest  in  the 
United  States  for  waterpower  development." 

The  five  lake  systems,  beginning  on  the  western  boundary 
of  the  State,  are:  (1)  the  Umbagog-Rangeley  series;  (2) 
the  Moosehead  series;  (3)  the  Penobscot  series,  consisting 
of  Chesuncook  and  its  surrounding  lakes  on  the  west  branch 
of  the  Penobscot  river,  Alleguash,  Chamberlain  and  others 
on  the  east  branch,  and  the  Seboeis  and  others  connected  with 
it  still  further  east  but  flowing  into  the  east  branch  of  the 
Penobscot;  (4)  the  Shoodic  lakes  in  the  southeastern  part  of 
the  State;  (5)  the  numerous  lakes  forming  the  headwaters  of 
the  St.  John  river  and  its  tributaries.  The  Umbagog-Range- 
ley series,  with  an  area  of  ninety  or  more  square  miles,  are 
drained  by  the  Androscoggin  river.  The  Moosehead  series, 
the  main  lake  of  which  is  one  hundred  and  twenty  square  miles 
in  area  and  is  the  largest  inland  body  of  water  in  New  Eng- 
land, form  the  headwaters  of  the  Kennebec.  The  Penobscot 
series  are  the  fountains  of  the  Penobscot.  The  Shoodic  series 
are  drained  by  the  St.  Croix.  Numerous  other  lakes,  in  every 
county  of  the  State,  though  small  in  area,  in  the  aggregate 
hold,  as  the  engineers  estimate,  an  immense  amount  of  storage 
water.  The  grand  total  number  of  lakes,  not  including  small 
ponds  tributary  to  the  streams,  is  placed  at  1620,  and  their 
aggregate  area  2300  square  miles.  So  equable  is  the  flow  of 
the  streams  of  Maine  that  the  present  users  of  her  water- 
power,  Mr.  Pressey  observes,  "  seldom  realize  the  difficulties 
under  which  developments  are  made  in  other  parts  of  the 
country  where  there  are  no  lakes,  ponds  or  marshes  upon 
which  to  draw  during  the  period  of  low  flow,  necessitating 
the  shutting  down  of  the  works  during  that  season,  or  the 
construction  of  auxiliary  steam  plants  which  require  fuel  and 
for  which  interest  and  repairs  must  be  provided  throughout 
the  year."  The  variation  in  the  flow  being  naturally  compara- 
tively small,  when  controlled  by  dams  at  the  outlets  of  the 
lake,  the  uniformity  of  the  discharge  is  "  almost  unparalleled." 

F  91  1 


New  England 

Let  us  review  these  rivers  and  their  waterpowers,  with  Mr. 
Pressey,  in  the  order  named  in  the  second  table  above.  First, 
the  Androscoggin.  We  find  this  busy  stream  formed  by  the 
junction  of  the  Magalloway  river  and  the  outlet  of  the  Umba- 
gog-Rangeley  lakes  near  the  Maine-New  Hampshire  boun- 
dary line,  and  extending  about  two  hundred  miles  in  length 
from  the  sources  of  the  Magalloway  river  to  the  coast.  It 
flows  first  southward  into  New  Hampshire;  then  turning 
abruptly  to  the  east  it  takes  its  course  into  Maine;  then 
again  turning  southward  it  ultimately  joins  the  Kennebec  in 
Merrymeeting  bay.  Its  last  fall  is  at  Brunswick  which  is  at 
the  head  of  tidewater  some  six  miles  above  the  mouth.  The 
elevation  of  the  river's  basin  is  stated  to  be,  in  general,  greater 
than  that  of  any  other  watershed  on  the  Atlantic  coast.  The 
outlet  of  Umbagog  lake  is  1256  feet  above  the  sea ;  Rangeley 
lakes  are  about  1500;  and  the  sources  of  the  Magalloway 
river  from  2600  to  2900  feet.  Its  entire  fall  from  the  level 
of  the  Umbagog  to  tidewater  is  about  1250  feet,  while  in  vari- 
ous stretches  it  ranges  generally  between  four  and  a  half  and 
seven  and  a  half  feet  to  the  mile.  At  three  important  points, 
however  —  Berlin  falls  in  New  Hampshire,  Rumford  falls  and 
Lewiston  —  there  are  large  concentrated  falls  by  which  the 
natural  falls  have  been  considerably  increased  by  dams.  The 
river's  flow  is  regulated  by  means  of  a  dam  below  the  mouth 
of  Magalloway,  by  which  the  waters  of  that  stream  can  be 
turned  back  into  Umbagog;  and  dams  at  the  outlets  of  the 
four  large  lakes  of  the  Umbagog-Rangeley  system  convert 
the  lakes  into  a  series  of  immense  reservoirs,  and  controlling 
the  storage  of  some  760  square  miles  which  can  be  discharged 
as  desired  for  use  during  the  dry  seasons.  Except  above  Berlin 
falls  the  river  is  nowhere  more  than  ten  miles  from  a  railroad, 
and  for  a  good  part  of  its  course  it  is  skirted  by  railroads. 
Tidewater  navigation  extends  to  the  falls  at  Brunswick. 
Above  Berlin  falls,  remote  from  transportation  facilities, 
little  or  no  power  is  yet  used,  except  for  logging;  and 
the  region,  like  others  in  northern  Maine,  is  a  paradise  of 
hunters.  The  total  amount  of  power  used  in  the  Androscoggin 
river  is  said  to  be  greater  than  that  employed  in  any  other 

[  92  1 


New  England  IVaterpowers 

New  England  stream.  Yet  there  is  much  still  unused,  as  the 
foregoing  tables  show.  Great  as  are  the  establishments  now 
fixed  on  its  banks  controlling  and  utilizing  it,  there  are  oppor- 
tunities for  as  great  at  various  points.  The  largest  present 
employers  of  the  waterpower  here  are  cotton  and  wood  pulp 
and  paper  manufacturers ;  together  with  electric  light  and 
power  generators.  The  development  in  the  last  decade,  or 
more,  for  manufactures  has  been  almost  exclusively  by  wood 
pulp  and  paper  makers.  At  the  period  of  the  latest  engineers' 
reports,  1902—1907,  it  was  estimated  that  this  class  was  then 
utilizing  more  than  two-thirds  of  the  total  waterpower  in  use. 
This  growth  in  a  single  line  of  manufacture  is  natural,  in 
view  of  the  fact  that  the  upper  Androscoggin  basin  .con- 
tained, till  the  cutters  had  made  great  inroads  into  it,  the 
finest  spruce  forest  in  New  England;  and  the  forest  is  yet 
extensive. 

Second,  the  Kennebec  river.  This  is  rightly  presented  by  the 
engineers  as  one  of  the  best  streams  in  the  United  States  for 
the  development  of  waterpower.  Its  drainage  basin  embraces 
a  total  area  of  6330  square  miles.  Between  Moosehead  lake, 
where  the  river  rises  approximately  1050  feet  above  sea- 
level,  and  the  head  of  tidewater,  the  fall  is  1026  feet,  an 
average  descent  of  •$$$$  feet  for  120  miles.  The  upper  parts  of 
the  basin  are  still  heavily  timbered  despite  the  extensive  cuttings 
of  years.  From  these  forests  are  yet  cut,  it  is  estimated,  about  a 
third  of  all  the  lumber  used  in  the  State  for  pulp  and  paper 
manufacture,  the  remainder  being  almost  wholly  taken  from 
the  timber  lands  of  the  Androscoggin  and  Penobscot  basins. 
The  river  pursues  a  general  southerly  course  to  Merrymeeting 
bay,  whence  it  reaches  the  ocean.  Its  fall  for  the  first  fifty 
miles  is  rapid,  amounting  to  more  than  700  feet  in  this  dis- 
tance. From  Indian  pond,  an  enlargement  of  the  river  four 
miles  below  Moosehead,  to  the  Forks,  where  Dead  river,  a 
tributary  which  rises  at  an  elevation  of  2000  feet,  enters, 
a  distance  of  twenty-three  miles,  the  fall  is  500  feet.  For 
a  considerable  part  of  this  distance  the  river  is  described 
as  running  a  little  torrent  between  steep  rocky  walls  from 
twenty  to  fifty  feet  high.  Through  this  first  fifty  miles  no 

[  93  1 


New  England 

waterpower  is  utilized.  The  uppermost  developed  power  is  at 
Carritunk  falls,  near  the  town  of  Solon.  Between  the  Forks 
and  this  point  the  river's  fall  is  about  200  feet,  and  here  is  a 
natural  cascade  with  a  pitch  of  twenty-eight  feet  through  a 
narrow  gorge,  above  and  below  which  the  river  widens  out. 
The  dam  affords  an  average  head  of  about  twenty-nine  feet. 
We  have  seen  that  the  utilization  of  this  river's  superb 
waterpower  embraces  a  comparatively  small  proportion  of  its 
course.  The  seven  developed  powers  between  Carritunk  falls 
and  tidewater,  which  Pressey  describes  (1902)  and  Porter 
(1898-99)  before  him,  were  utilizing  an  aggregate  of  24,000 
effective  horsepower  covering  142  feet  only  of  the  314  feet 
total  fall  of  the  river  between  these  points.  Barrows  (1906) 
remarks,  of  the  1026  feet  fall  on  the  river  between  Moosehead 
lake  and  tidewater,  only  about  153  feet  developed.  Over  the 
opportunities  for  further  development  along  this  river  the 
engineers  are  eloquent.  Barrows  dwells  upon  the  immense 
amount  of  unutilized  power,  especially  in  the  more  northerly 
parts  of  the  Kennebec  basin.  He  points  out  the  opportunities 
for  development  in  the  run  below  Indian  pond  to  the  mouth 
of  Dead  river.  Pressey  observes  the  large  powers  available  for 
future  development  in  the  stretch  of  river  from  below  the 
mouth  of  Dead  river  to  Carritunk  falls.  Excellent  opportun- 
ities are  also  found  on  the  principal  tributaries  of  the  Kenne- 
bec. The  Carrabassett,  which  enters  from  the  west  at  North 
Anson,  presents  several  good  sites  for  further  development. 
The  several  powers  now  utilized  on  this  stream  are  employed 
in  pulp  and  paper  manufacture,  saw  and  planing  mills,  and 
electric  light  generating.  The  Sandy  river,  rising  near 
Rangeley  lake,  and  entering  the  Kennebec  two  miles  below 
Madison,  with  a  rapid  fall  through  the  greater  part  of  its 
course,  has  promising  opportunities.  The  few  developed 
powers  here,  at  Phillips,  Fairbanks,  Farmington,  New  Sharon 
and  Stark,  are  variously  used  in  lumber  mills,  small  factories, 
and  for  generating  electricity.  Sebasticook  river,  entering 
from  the  east  opposite  Waterville,  is  remarked  as  one  of 
the  most  fully  developed  for  power  of  all  the  Kennebec's 
tributaries,  yet  there  are  on  this  stream  a  number  of  good 

[  94  ] 


New  England  Waterpowers 

unoccupied  powers  available.  The  powers  utilized  at  various 
points  are  used  mainly  by  woolen  mills,  and  by  an  electric 
light  and  power  plant.  Messalouskee  river,  entering  from 
the  west  at  Waterville,  offers  similar  opportunities.  The 
powers  here  developed  are  also  used  by  woolen  mills,  shoddy 
mills,  scythe,  axe  and  tool  factories,  and  machine  shops ;  and 
for  producing  electric  light  and  power.  Cobbosseecontee  river, 
entering  six  miles  below  Augusta,  at  Gardiner,  has  eight 
dams,  and  sites  for  more.  The  municipal  water  supply  for  the 
city  of  Gardiner  is  here  drawn  and  pumped  by  waterpower. 
The  fall  of  this  stream  is  given  as  206  feet. 

The  Penobscot,  next  in  order,  is  distinguished  as  having 
the  largest  drainage  basin  of  all  the  rivers  of  Maine:  a  total 
area  of  8500  square  miles,  or  as  Porter,  the  second  engineer- 
historian  of  the  Maine  rivers,  puts  it  impressively,  more  than 
a  quarter  of  the  entire  State.  A  large  part  of  this  basin  is  yet 
"  wild  land,"  heavily  timbered  and  much  of  it  known  only  to 
lumbermen  and  the  sportsmen.  Within  the  Penobscot  basin 
there  are  counted  a  total  of  467  lakes.  The  west  branch  of 
the  Penobscot  is  the  main  one.  It  flows  from  its  headwaters 
first  southeast  and  easterly,  and  passes  within  two  or  three 
miles  of  the  head  of  Moosehead  lake ;  then  turning  and  flowing 
northward  it  enters  Chesuncook  lake,  which  lies  near  the  center 
of  the  basin,  fifty  miles  from  the  head  of  this  branch,  at  an 
elevation  of  930  feet.  Thence  it  flows  east  and  southeast  to  the 
Pamedecook  and  the  Twin  lakes.  In  the  next  thirty  miles  be- 
low Twin  lakes  to  the  mouth  of  the  Mettawamkeag  river, 
which  enters  not  far  south  of  the  union  of  the  two  branches, 
the  stream  descends  288  feet ;  and  because  of  this  rapid  fall, 
the  enlarged  drainage  area,  and  the  extensive  storage  facil- 
ities afforded  by  the  lakes,  this  stretch,  as  Porter  shows,  pos- 
sesses great  intrinsic  value.  From  Chesuncook  lake  to  tide- 
water, at  Bangor,  the  distance  along  the  west  branch  and  the 
main  river  is  about  121  miles,  an  average  slope  of  seven  feet 
to  the  mile;  and  this  is  concentrated  at  intervals  by  ledges 
where  waterpower  has  been  and  may  further  be  developed.  At 
the  Twin  lakes,  or  the  outlet  of  North  Twin  lake,  is  Twin  dam, 
built  by  the  Penobscot  Log  Driving  company,  by  which  is  con- 

[  95  ] 


New  England 

trolled  for  logging  purposes  a  splendid  storage  afforded  by 
the  several  connecting  lakes  of  this  region.  Other  dams,  far- 
ther upstream  at  the  foot  of  other  lakes,  are  also  maintained 
by  this  company  for  service  in  log-driving;  and  downstream, 
at  the  outlet  of  Millinoket  lake  a  few  miles  below  North  Twin 
dam.  The  lumber  industry  is  the  most  important  in  the  Penob- 
scot  valley.  The  largest  users  of  the  power  are  the  pulp  and 
paper  mills ;  the  second  largest  users  are  the  saw  mills.  At 
Millinoket,  where  the  Millinoket  river  coming  from  the  lake 
of  the  same  name  enters  the  west  branch,  is  the  uppermost 
utilization  of  waterpower.  Here  are  the  Millinoket  mills,  claim- 
ing to  be  the  largest  pulp  and  paper  plant  in  the  world,  oper- 
ating some  20,000  horsepower.  The  power  here  developed  util- 
izes the  total  fall  between  the  North  Twin  dam  and  the  outlet 
of  Millinoket  river.  Between  the  latter  place  and  Medway, 
where  the  east  branch  enters,  there  is  a  large  fall.  Below  the 
mouth  of  the  Mettawamkeag  the  river  turns  southerly,  and 
from  this  point  to  tidewater,  a  run  of  sixty  miles,  it  falls  177 
feet. 

The  St.  Croix  river,  next  on  the  list,  marks,  with  its  tribu- 
tary lakes,  nearly  half  of  the  eastern  Maine-New  Brunswick 
boundary.  It  is  formed  by  two  branches.  The  upper,  known 
as  the  Upper  St.  Croix  or  Chiputneticook  river,  is  the  outlet 
of  Schoodic  lake ;  the  other,  west  branch,  or  Kennebasis  river, 
is  the  outlet  of  the  western  lakes  of  the  basin  known  as  Ken- 
nebasis lakes.  More  than  half  of  the  drainage  area,  which  is 
about  1630  square  miles,  is  tributary  to  great  reservoir  sys- 
tems controlled  by  dams  at  Vanceboro,  on  the  Upper  St. 
Croix,  and  Princeton,  on  west  branch.  Above  Vanceboro  and 
Princeton  each  branch  is  a  succession  of  lakes  to  almost  the 
extreme  headwaters.  The  length  of  the  river  from  headwaters 
to  mouth  is  one  hundred  miles.  The  basin  is  lower  than  those 
of  the  other  great  rivers  flowing  to  the  Atlantic,  the  eleva- 
tion of  its  headwaters  being  only  about  540  feet;  yet  the  fall 
from  the  lower  of  the  Schoodic  lakes  —  the  Chiputneticook 
—  to  tidewater,  a  distance  of  fifty-four  miles,  is  382  feet,  or 
seven  feet  to  the  mile.  At  a  number  of  points,  falls  and  rapids 
occur,  affording  excellent  opportunities  for  waterpower  devel- 

[  96  1 


New  England  Waterpowers 

opment.  This  river  has  been  for  a  long  period  largely  employed 
in  the  logging  business,  the  cuttings  being  made  in  the  exten- 
sive timber  lands  of  the  region  above  Vanceboro  and  Prince- 
ton ;  and  the  principal  industries  along  its  course  have  been 
lumber  manufactures.  The  greater  part  of  the  timber  of  the 
upper  region  was  brought  into  the  control  of  the  saw-mill 
owners  of  Calais  at  the  head  of  tidewater,  and  of  St.  Stephens 
opposite  Calais  on  the  Canadian  side;  while  the  storage  in 
the  principal  reservoirs  is  controlled  by  the  St.  Croix  Log 
Driving  company  comprising  the  various  mill  owners  on  the 
river.  In  later  years  the  number  of  saw  mills  was  consider- 
ably reduced,  and  in  their  stead  rose  pulp  and  paper  mills. 
Today  pulp  and  paper  making  is  becoming  the  leading  indus- 
try of  the  St.  Croix  valley.  Of  the  amount  of  the  river's 
natural  fall  from  below  the  Vanceboro  dam  to  mean  tide  at 
Calais,  two-fifths  in  the  aggregate  is  concentrated  at  Spednic 
falls,  about  two  miles  above  the  mouth  of  the  west  branch, 
which  form  an  important  water  privilege  at  Grand  Rapids, 
Sprague's  falls,  where  the  waterpower  is  an  excellent  one,  and 
Calais. 

The  St.  John  river  flows  through  Maine  a  length,  including 
the  more  important  meanderings,  of  some  210  miles ;  while 
the  total  length  from  its  remotest  sources  to  the  sea  is  figured 
at  approximating  450  miles.  That  part  of  its  basin  that  lies 
in  Maine  occupies  the  whole  northern  part  of  the  State.  The 
greater  part  of  its  basin  is  forested.  Its  extreme  headwaters 
lie  in  the  mountainous  region  between  Maine  and  Canada  at 
an  elevation  of  from  fifteen  hundred  to  two  thousand  feet. 
From  its  junction  with  the  St.  Francis  river,  at  the  northwest 
part  of  the  Maine  line,  it  forms  the  northern  boundary  of  the 
State.  On  the  east  side  of  the  State  it  receives  the  waters  of 
the  Aroostook  and  the  Meduxnekeag  rivers,  the  basins  of 
which  are  almost  wholly  in  Maine,  besides  several  smaller 
tributaries  rising  in  the  State.  The  elevation  of  the  river  at 
the  upper  Maine  boundary  is  419  feet  above  tide,  and  at  the 
mouth  of  the  St.  Francis  606  feet.  Next  to  the  Androscoggin 
it  has  the  most  elevated  drainage  in  Maine.  For  the  reason 
that  the  whole  drainage  basin  is  at  a  considerable  altitude 

[  97  ] 


New  England 

and  not  parts  of  it  at  an  extreme  elevation,  the  engineers 
remark,  the  fall  of  the  stream  and  the  possibilities  of  the  de- 
velopment of  waterpower  are  far  less  than  upon  any  of  the 
other  large  rivers  of  Maine.  Yet  that  it  has  possibilities  of  no 
small  proportion  is  made  apparent.  With  the  extension  of 
proper  transportation  facilities  these  possibilities  will  surely 
be  developed,  and,  as  the  engineers  say,  they  will  be  trust- 
worthy throughout  the  year  because  of  the  river's  numerous 
tributary  lakes.  It  is  Pressey's  reasonable  forecast  that  with 
the  development  lumbering  and  pulp  and  paper  manufacture 
will  become  the  leading  industries.  The  river  is  navigable 
throughout  a  large  part  of  its  course.  Of  its  tributaries,  the 
Aroostook  is  the  largest.  This  river  rises  in  highlands  in  the 
north  central  part  of  the  State  at  an  elevation  of  some  1050 
feet,  and  where  it  unites  with  the  St.  John  its  height  is  345 
feet.  Its  total  length  is  117  miles,  giving  an  average  fall  of 
six  feet  per  mile ;  and  by  reason  of  the  many  lakes  at  its  head- 
waters and  on  its  tributaries,  the  flow  is  comparatively  uni- 
form throughout  the  year.  Developments  of  waterpower  have 
been  made  in  a  few  cases  only,  while  at  a  number  of  points 
along  its  course,  as  the  engineers  point  out,  rapids  occur 
which  might  be  profitably  utilized.  The  Alleguash  is  the 
second  largest  tributary  in  Maine.  It  rises  in  an  upper  lake, 
and  also  has  a  number  of  undeveloped  powers  in  rapids  and 
small  falls  here  and  there.  The  St.  Francis,  joining  on  the 
northern  border  of  the  State,  forms  the  upper  boundary  line 
for  about  forty  miles.  Its  considerable  undeveloped  power  is 
found  particularly  at  its  mouth. 

The  Presumpscot  river  is  set  forth  by  the  engineers  as  one 
of  the  best  waterpower  streams  of  its  size  in  the  United 
States.  It  is  the  outlet  of  Sebago  lake,  which  lies  only  about 
seventeen  miles  northwest  of  Portland,  and  discharges  into 
Casco  bay.  Sebago  lake  is  fed  by  Crooked  river,  which  heads 
thirty-five  miles  farther  north  within  three  miles  of  the  An- 
droscoggin.  The  Presumpscot's  fall  from  the  dam  at  the  foot 
of  the  lake  to  mean  low  tide  at  the  foot  of  its  lower  falls  is  an 
average  of  ^Hv  feet  a  mile  in  a  distance  of  21.65  miles.  Its 
chief  interest  is  found  in  the  regularity  of  its  flow  due  to  the 

[  98] 


New  England  Waterpowers 

dams  erected  at  the  outlet  of  the  lake.  Nowhere  in  the  United 
States,  the  engineers  say,  is  there  a  better  example  of  the  suc- 
cess of  storage  of  water  and  regulation  of  the  flow  of  a  stream 
than  here.  The  largest  users  of  power  on  this  river  are  the 
Samuel  D.  Warren  &  Company,  paper  manufacturers,  whose 
extensive  plant  constitutes  the  Cumberland  mills.  Some  3000 
horsepower  are  employed  in  these  mills  from  all  sources,  half 
this  amount  from  water  direct,  and  half  from  steam  and 
electricity,  the  latter  being  transmitted  from  lower  falls  six 
miles  below.  At  Saccarappa  the  waterpower  is  used  by  cotton, 
and  several  smaller  mills,  and  for  electric  light  generation. 
At  other  falls  are  woolen  and  board  mills.  Crooked  river  has 
several  good  falls,  some  of  which  are  utilized. 

Saco  river,  the  last  in  the  list,  receives  its  headwaters  from 
the  valleys  and  slopes  of  the  White  mountains  at  elevations 
from  4000  to  5000  feet,  and  drains  an  area  of  1720  square 
miles,  of  which  900  are  in  Maine.  The  slopes  of  the  head- 
waters are  very  steep.  For  the  first  twelve  miles  it  falls 
more  than  1100  feet.  Then  in  a  distance  of  rising  eighteen 
miles  the  fall  is  330  feet.  Next  follows  a  stretch  of  "dead" 
water  with  a  drop  of  only  sixty-nine  feet  in  twenty-eight 
miles.  This  ends  at  Great  falls  in  Maine,  in  the  town  of 
Hiram,  where  the  river  descends  seventy-two  feet  in  successive 
pitches  in  about  900  feet.  Thence  it  flows  forty  miles  to  tide- 
water at  Biddeford  and  Saco  with  a  total  fall  of  271  feet. 
The  important  part  of  the  river  therefore  is  this  stretch 
from  Great  falls  to  tidewater. 

In  his  summary  concluding  his  report  Pressey  notes  the 
remarkable  increase  in  the  development  of  the  Maine  water- 
powers  in  comparatively  recent  years,  with  the  significant  fact 
that  this  development  has  been  going  on  principally  in  the 
direction  of  larger  wheels  and  more  extensive  plants.  Yet  the 
opportunities  here  are  as  inviting  for  small  as  well  as  for 
large  industries.  As  Mr.  Lyons,  the  state  commissioner  of  in- 
dustrial and  labor  statistics,  truly  says :  "  For  those  wishing 
to  embark  in  manufacturing  be  it  the  man  who  needs  only  a 
small  waterpower  for  a  part  of  the  year,  or  the  corporation 
that  wishes  to  erect  an  immense  cotton  mill,  the  State  has  the 

[  99  1 


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New  England  Waterpowers 

available  waterpowers,  and  to  a  large  extent  the  means  of 
transportation."  And  not  only,  he  shows,  has  Maine  the 
waterpower  to  drive  a  vast  amount  of  machinery,  either  di- 
rectly or  by  the  generation  of  electric  power,  and  the  facilities 
by  land  and  water  for  the  transportation  of  the  products,  but 
the  raw  material  is  here  in  large  quantities.  "  It  is  estimated 
that  the  growth  of  spruce  in  our  forests  is  furnishing  a 
continuous  annual  crop  .of  more  than  600,000,000  board 
feet  of  lumber.  .  .  .  The  distribution  of  our  granite,  ready 
to  be  wrought  into » building  material,  our  clay  and  sand 
for  the  manufacture  of  brick  and  tile,  is  as  broad  as  the  boun- 
daries of  the  State ;  and  although  our  limestone  and  slate  de- 
posits are  less  extensive,  there  is  sufficient  of  these  materials 
within  our  borders  to  make  them  practically  inexhaustible." 

Respecting  the  potential  powers  of  the  rivers  of  the  other 
New  England  states,  the  official  data  are  not  so  definite.  Suf- 
ficient however  is  furnished  by  the  engineers,  and  by  various 
prospectors,  to  show  their  extent  and  value  in  possibilities 
for  profitable  and  large  development. 

The  Merrimac  and  the  Connecticut,  and  their  tributaries, 
are  of  first  importance.  The  Merrimac,  the  most  noted  water- 
power  stream  in  the  world,  as  Prof.  George  F.  Swain  of 
Harvard  University,  the  first  expert  historian  of  the  "  Wa- 
terpower of  the  Streams  of  Eastern  New  England,"  char- 
acterizes it,  though  most  effectively  harnessed  at  its  chief 
points,  has  yet  powers  not  fully  utilized.  Formed  by  the 
junction  of  the  Pemigewasset  and  the  Winnepesaukee  rivers, 
in  the  town  of  Franklin,  the  fonner  taking  its  rise  in  the 
heart  of  the  White  mountains,  the  latter  having  its  source 
in  Lake  Winnepesaukee,  the  largest  sheet  of  water  in  New 
Hampshire,  the  Merrimac  courses  110  miles  to  the  sea,  turn- 
ing on  its  way  a  variety  of  machinery  and  "  more  spindles 
than  any  other  river  on  the  face  of  the  globe."  Yet  there  is 
room  for  more.  The  river  drains  a  total  area  of  about  4916 
square  miles,  of  which  about  3780  lie  in  New  Hampshire 
and  the  remainder  in  Massachusetts..  Its  average  fall  is  2.49 
feet  per  mile,  and  the  greater  part  of  this  fall  occurring  in 
short  distances,  at  six  places,  the  remarkable  powers  are 

[  101  ] 


New  England 

produced  for  which  the  Merrimac  is  renowned.  The  flow  is 
rendered  comparatively  constant  by  the  control  exercised 
over  natural  reservoirs  on  the  upper  waters  by  the  great 
manufacturing  and  waterpower  corporations  established 
downstream  at  Manchester  and  below.  In  its  progress  through 
New  Hampshire  southerly,  fifty-six  miles,  it  receives  the 
Contoocook,  its  largest  tributary,  the  Suncook  and  the 
Nashua  rivers ;  while  in  its  run  through  Massachusetts,  after 
entering  which  it  deflects  to  the  east  and  continues  forty 
miles  to  the  sea  at  Newburyport,  it  takes  in  the  waters  of  the 
Concord,  the  Spicket,  the  Shawsheen  and  the  Powwow  rivers. 
The  fully  developed  powers  lie  in  the  short  distance  between 
Manchester,  Lowell  and  Lawrence.  The  upper  powers  of  most 
value  are  in  easy  reach  of  Concord.  The  uppermost  utilized 
is  Sewell's  falls,  below  the  mouth  of  the  Contoocook,  three 
miles  above  Concord.  Next  of  importance  is  Garvin's  falls, 
an  excellent  power,  below  Concord  and  just  above  the  Sun- 
cook's  mouth.  At  this  place  there  has  been  a  dam  since  1815, 
first  erected  in  connection  with  a  canal — the  "Bow  canal" 
ih  was  called  —  built  around  these  falls  for  purposes  of  navi- 
gation. In  modern  times  it  was  furnishing  power  for  a  pulp 
mill.  Next  below  Garvin's  the  Hooksett  falls,  also  early 
partially  developed,  afford  considerable  power.  The  great 
powers  developed  to  a  high  state  of  perfection  come  next  in 
order  a  few  miles  below  Hooksett.  At  Manchester  the  im- 
pressive works  erected  and  controlled  by  the  Amoskeag 
company  are  turning  the  machinery  of  the  massive  plant  of 
the  Amoskeag  Manufacturing  company,  the  Stark  mills, 
paper  and  other  factories,  assembled  along  the  canals  on 
both  sides  of  the  river.  The  power  at  Lowell,  next  below,  the 
pioneer  of  the  large  powers  of  the  country  to  be  systemati- 
cally brought  into  use,  continues  in  the  front  rank  with  those 
of  first  importance.  The  organization  owning  and  main- 
taining it,  too,  is  one  of  the  oldest  in  the  country,  dating  back 
to  the  eighteenth  century.  The  "  Proprietors  of  the  Locks 
and  Canals  on  the  Merrimac  river,"  chartered  in  1792,  pri- 
marily for  purposes  of  improving  the  river  to  render  it 
navigable  for  boats  from  tidewater  at  Lawrence  to  the  New 

[  102  ] 


New  England  Waterpowers 

Hampshire  line,  before  railroads  were  dreamed  of  and  the 
expansion  of  waterways  was  engaging  the  wide-visioned  cap- 
tains of  industry  of  that  day,  as  similar  projects  on  a  mag- 
nificent scale  are  attracting  the  captains  of  this  day,  was  the 
pioneer  corporation  taking  the  first  bold  step  toward  the 
construction  of  great  hydraulic  works  on  New  England 
rivers.  Here  the  pioneer  cotton  manufacturing  corporations 
instituted  by  the  Appletons,  the  Jacksons,  the  Bootts,  the 
Lawrences  and  other  progressive  New  England  merchants, 
with  the  rapid  and  substantial  upbuilding  of  this  manufac- 
turing center  from  its  foundation  in  1826,  have  developed  in 
the  succeeding  years,  through  prosperity  and  occasional  re- 
verse, modern  plants  of  large  capacity  and  extensive  output ; 
while  several  of  them  have  established  or  acquired  branches, 
also  with  great  plants,  in  the  South.  It  is  a  notable  assem- 
blage, this  of  these  pioneers,  still  holding  firm  ground  in 
the  foremost  line.  The  power  at  Lawrence  is  quite  as  impor- 
tant as  those  above,  and  Professor  Swain  approved  it  as  one 
of  the  most  carefully  managed  in  the  United  States.  From 
the  top  of  the  Pawtucket  dam  at  Lowell  to  the  top  of  the 
Lawrence  dam,  a  distance  of  twelve  miles,  the  river's  fall  is 
about  forty-eight  feet.  The  power  is  controlled  by  the  Essex 
company,  incorporated  in  1845,  three  years  before  the  be- 
ginning of  this  busy  manufacturing  center,  in  1847,  which 
constructed  the  dam  and  canals.  The  great  cotton  and 
woolen  corporations  here,  developing  with  the  upgrowing 
city,  also  constitute  a  notable  list.  Of  no  small  importance 
as  power  producers  are  the  Merrimac's  tributaries.  The 
Pemigewasset,  though  with  a  rapid  fall,  particularly  in  its 
upper  parts,  from  headwaters  at  elevations  of  approxima- 
ting 2000  feet,  has  a  far  less  amount  of  waterpower  than  the 
Winnepesaukee.  The  fall  of  the  latter  from  Winnepesaukee 
lake  to  the  junction  with  the  Pemigewasset  is  225  feet  in  a 
distance  of  fourteen  miles.  The  fall  near  the  mouth,  at 
Franklin's  falls,  affords  a  power  that  compares  well  with  the 
larger  powers  of  the  Merrimac.  Other  excellent  powers 
which  are  variously  utilized  by  cotton,  woolen,  hosiery, 
yarn,  lace  and  other  industries,  are  at  Tilton,  Laconia  and 

f  103  1 


Lake  Village.  The  Contoocook,  which  joins  the  Merrimac 
at  Fisherville,  a  few  miles  north  of  Concord,  having  a  num- 
ber of  abrupt  falls  breaking  its  declivity,  presents  a  consid- 
erable amount  of  available  power,  which  is  utilized  in  part 
in  various  towns  along  the  stream,  notably  by  paper  mills 
and  cotton  and  other  factories.  The  Nashua,  entering  at 
Nashua,  comes  down  from  Massachusetts,  from  two  branches, 
the  north  and  the  south  branch,  having  their  fountains  in 
Worcester  county,  turning  on  its  way  considerable  ma- 
chinery in  various  mills.  Both  branches  are  excellent  streams 
for  waterpower,  and  are  fairly  utilized.  Fitchburg  is  the 
larger  user  on  the  north  branch,  and  Clinton  on  the  south 
branch.  The  greatest  power  is  at  the  mouth  of  the  river  at 
Nashua  close  to  the  Merrimac.  A  few  miles  above  are  good 
privileges.  At  Pepperell  the  power  is  utilized  by  the  mills  of 
a  paper-  company.  The  Concord  river,  entering  at  Lowell, 
has  its  most  important  power  within  about  two  miles  of  its 
mouth.  The  Spicket,  emptying  at  Lawrence,  is  called  a  good 
stream  for  power.  The  Shawsheen's  principal  powers  are  at 
Ballardvale  and  Andover;  the  Powwow's,  at  Amesbury  and 
Salisbury. 

The  Connecticut,  the  largest  and  noblest  of  the  rivers  of 
New  England,  coursing  between  New  Hampshire  and  Ver- 
mont and  across  Massachusetts  and  Connecticut,  350  miles 
from  its  sources  in  the  high  land  on  the  Northern  United 
States-Canada  line  to  the  sea  at  Long  Island  sound,  with 
many  a  fall  and  succession  of  rapids,  is  rich  in  waterpower, 
yet  only  partially  utilized,  although  at  a  few  points  the  river 
is  superbly  harnessed.  With  its  source  in  a  succession  of  moun- 
tain lakes,  its  total  drainage  area  is  11,085  square  miles,  of 
which  155  lie  in  the  province  of  Quebec.  For  the  greater 
part  of  the  river's  luxurious  progress  from  the  north  between 
New  Hampshire  and  Vermont,  midst  scenic  charms  surpass- 
ing those  of  all  other  New  England  rivers,  it  contains  numer- 
ous rapids  and  abrupt  pitches ;  then  after  passing  Bellows 
falls  its  general  descent  becomes  slower,  broken  by  falls  or 
rapids  at  only  a  few  places  about  and  below  the  upper  Mas- 
sachusetts line.  The  principal  powers  now  utilized  are  at 

[  104  1 


New  England  Waterpowers 

Olcott's  falls,  or  Wilders,  a  Vermont  village  about  three 
miles  above  White  River  Junction ;  at  Sumner's  or  Quechee 
falls,  seven  miles  below  White  River  Junction ;  Bellows  Falls, 
thirty  miles  farther  down;  at  a  great  dam  newly  erected  for 
electric  works  between  South  Vernon  and  Hinsdale;  at 
Turner's  Falls  and  Holyoke,  and  at  Windsor  Locks.  Others, 
and  rich  ones  in  possibilities,  remain  yet  undeveloped.  The 
river  is  first  harnessed  in  a  small  way  far  up  by  its  sources. 
At  the  outlet  of  both  the  First  and  Second  lakes  in  the  high- 
lands are  dams,  utilized  mainly  for  purposes  of  log-driving. 
Lumbering  is  yet  one  of  the  most  important  interests  on  the 
river,  the  timber  being  cut  about  the  extensive  upper  waters. 
The  Connecticut  lakes  and  the  three  west-side  waterways 
are  the  chief  reservoirs  for  the  masses  of  logs  harvested  west 
of  the  lakes  which  go  down  in  the  annual  "  drives  "  to  the 
various  lumber  and  paper  mills  along  the  river's  length.  A 
considerable  part  of  the  annual  drive  is  sawed  at  Mclndoe's 
falls,  a  pitch  at  Barnet,  Vermont,  finishing  the  long  stretch 
of  rapids  knoAvn  as  the  Fifteen-Miles  falls ;  the  remainder  is 
distributed  among  different  mills  as  far  south  as  Hartford. 
Below  the  lakes  the  next  power  is  at  Beecher's  falls  in 
Canaan,  on  the  Vermont-Canada  bound,  and  West  Stew- 
artstown,  New  Hampshire,  opposite.  Below  West  Stewarts- 
town  in  the  long,  graceful  and  placid  fall  to  Lancaster,  New 
Hampshire,  and  Lunenburg,  Vermont,  are  dams  here  and 
there  utilized  by  electric  plants  supplying  the  country  towns 
and  villages  with  light  and  power.  At  Lancaster  waterpowers 
are  utilized  on  Israel's  river  which  here  empties  into  the 
Connecticut.  Below  Lancaster,  at  a  great  eddy  in  a  bend  of 
the  river  at  Dalton,  the  Fifteen-Miles  falls  begin.  About  a 
mile  below  Mclndoe's  falls  the  Passumpsic,  coming  down 
from  the  Vermont  hills,  enters  the  stream.  From  this  point 
the  river's  flow  down  to  the  Massachusetts  line,  a  direct  dis- 
tance of  137  miles  is  an  average  descent  of  two  feet  to  the 
mile.  At  Brunswick,  Vermont  side,  the  Nulhegan  river  enters ; 
at  Northumberland,  New  Hampshire  side,  the  Upper  Am- 
monoosuc ;  at  Barnet,  Vermont,  the  Passumpsic;  at  Woods- 
ville,  New  Hampshire,  the  Lower  Ammonoosuc;  from  the 

[  105  1  ' 


New  England 

Vermont  side,  Wells  river,  nearly  opposite  the  lower  Am- 
monoosuc ;  at  Bradford,  Vermont,  Waits  river ;  above  Nor- 
wich, Vermont,  the  Ompomponoosuc ;  at  White  River  Junc- 
tion, the  White,  the  largest  stream  in  Vermont  on  the  east 
side  of  the  Green  mountains ;  at  Lebanon,  New  Hampshire, 
the  Mascomy,  and  the  Quechee  at  North  Hartland,  Vermont, 
both  contributing  to  the  Quechee  or  Sumner's  falls ;  at 
Claremont,  New  Hampshire,  the  Sugar  river,  an  especially 
important  mill  stream ;  at  Springfield,  Vermont,  the  Black, 
another  important  one ;  at  Rockingham,  Vermont,  next  above 
Bellows  Falls,  the  Williams  river ;  from  Westminster,  Ver- 
mont, next  below  Bellows  Falls,  Saxton's  river;  immediately 
above  Brattleboro,  Vermont,  West  river ;  at  Hinsdale,  New 
Hampshire,  the  Ashuelot,  entering  with  a  royal  sweep  —  all 
important  tributaries,  and  all  with  good  waterpower  utilized 
and  potential.  The  Fifteen-Miles  falls  constitute  one  of  the 
greatest  of  the  potential  sources  of  power  on  the  upper  river. 
Thus  far  they  have  been  utilized  only  at  the  Mclndoe's  and  to 
a  comparatively  slight  extent  at  a  single  point  toward  their 
upper  part.  A  great  project  however  was  developed  in  1910  to 
harness  them  at  the  now  decadent  but  once  quite  prosperous 
little  Vermont  town  of  Lower  Waterford,  and  lift  the  river's 
level  back  to  their  head  for  the  establishment  of  a  great 
electric  plant  to  distribute  power  for  manufacturing  and 
other  purposes  to  a  wide  extent  of  country.  The  power  at 
Wilder's  is  utilized  by  pulp  and  paper  mills.  That  at  Sum- 
ner's falls  is  partially  developed.  Claremont,  at  the  mouth 
of  Sugar  river  and  Springfield  at  the  mouth  of  the  Black, 
are  notable  manufacturing  centers,  utilizing  considerable 
amounts  of  power  in  the  manufacture  of  machinery  and 
paper.  Bellows  Falls  is  largely  utilized.  Here  the  valley  is 
enclosed  by  steep  hills  and  the  river  descends  abruptly  over 
a  series  of  ledges  and  rushes  through  a  narrow  gorge  hemmed 
in  by  high  walls  of  rock.  At  the  foot  of  the  gorge,  finishing  in 
a  great  eddy,  it  spreads  out  again  in  smooth  water  and  re- 
sumes its  tranquil  aspect.  The  dam  here  extends  across  the 
head  of  the  rapids,  and  thence  a  canal  carries  the  water  down 
to  the  foot  of  the  falls  where  the  mills  are  located.  These 
«  f  106  1 


New  England  Waterpowers 

are  for  the  greater  part  paper  mills.  Other  products  include 
agricultural  implements.  Below  Brattleboro  and  just  above 
the  Massachusetts  line,  the  river  is  most  effectively  harnessed 
with  the  newly  erected  electrical  works  of  grand  proportions 
completed  in  1910,  for  furnishing  light  and  power  within  a  ra- 
dius of  sixty  miles.  The  great  concrete  dam  thrown  across  the 
river  between  Vernon  and  Hinsdale,  650  feet  long  and 
thirty-four  feet  high  above  average  low  water,  ponds  back  a 
length  of  twenty-two  miles  and  a  width  varying  from  600 
to  4000,  making  available  some  25,000  horsepower.  Ten  large 
flood  gates,  ten  feet  by  seven  feet,  capable  of  discharging 
25,000  cubic  feet  of  water,  penetrate  the  great  dam  for  use 
in  regulating  the  level  of  the  pond  it  creates,  and  in  time  of 
floods  to  prevent  damage  upstream.  The  work  has  raised 
the  original  river  level  back  at  Brattleboro  about  fifteen  feet, 
and  rapids  two  miles  above  Brattleboro  have  been  trans- 
formed into  still  water.  On  the  upper  four  feet  of  the  twenty- 
two-mile  pond,  or  reservoir,  as  stated  by  Lauriston  Ballard 
in  "  The  World's  Work  "  the  storage  has  been  computed  to 
be  250,000,000  cubic  feet.  The  powers  of  the  Massachusetts 
reach — at  Turner's  Falls  and  at  Holyoke  —  are  utilized 
to  their  full  capacity.  From  the  crest  of  the  Turner's  Falls 
dam  to  the  crest  of  the  Holyoke  dam  the  river's  fall  is  75.25 
feet.  Of  the  Holyoke  power  Dwight  Porter's  estimate  of  a 
quarter  of  a  century  ago  (in  the  United  States  Census  water- 
power  reports,  1885)  holds  good  today —  "a  splendid  water- 
power  admirably  developed  and  enjoying  a  thoroughness 
and  scientific  method  of  management  that  are  probably  no- 
where surpassed."  Now  as  then  the  great  bulk  of  the  water 
is  used  by  paper  mills,  and  Holyoke  retains  as  then  unchal- 
lenged the  sobriquet  of  the  "  Paper  City,"  the  chief  center  for 
the  manufacture  of  paper  in  the  United  States.  Yet  although 
the  fine  paper-making  concerns  outnumber  any  other  single 
class  of  manufacture  here,  cotton  manufacture  with  which 
Holyoke  began  its  prosperous  career  as  a  separate  town,  in 
1850,  continues  to  hold  its  own.  The  enterprises  of  the  Per- 
kinses, the  Lymans,  the  Dwights,  names  so  conspicuously 
associated  with  New  England  manufacturing  in  the  nineteen 

[  107  1 


New  England 

forties  and  fifties,  with  the  organization  of  the  Hadley 
Falls  company,  and  the  development  of  the  waterpower  of 
Hadley  falls,  continue  perfected  in  the  hands  of  their  suc- 
cessors :  the  Holyoke  Water  Power  company,  and  the  great 
Lyman  and  Hadley  mills.  The  present  dam  is  a  most  modern 
twentieth  century  affair  erected  in  1904.  On  most  of  the 
tributaries  entering  the  river  in  the  Massachusetts  reach 
various  and  diversified  industries  are  now  also  actively  carried 
on,  with  the  development  of  many  waterpowers ;  yet,  as  else- 
where, all  are  not  fully  utilized.  These  tributaries  enter  from 
the  upper  Massachusetts  bound  in  this  order:  Miller's  river, 
emptying  at  the  town  of  Gill;  Fall's  river,  at  Greenfield;  the 
Deerfield,  at  Deerfield,  along  with  the  Green  from  Greenfield 
which  it  receives  at  its  mouth ;  Mill  river,  at  Northampton ; 
the  Chicopee  with  its  branches,  the  Swift,  the  Ware  and  the 
Quaboag,  just  above  Chicopee;  another  Mill  river,  at  Spring- 
field ;  the  Westfield,  or  Agawam,  at  West  Springfield.  On  the 
Deerfield  another  enterprise  of  bold  proportions  for  the 
utilization  of  the  splendid  power  of  its  upper  waters  is  under- 
way this  present  year  (1910)  with  promise  of  immediate  de- 
velopment in  accordance  with  the  engineers'  plans.  This 
large  project,  the  conception  of  the  same  engineers,  Messrs. 
Chase  and  Harriman,  who  have  created  the  great  electric 
power  producing  and  distributing  works  at  Vernon-Hins- 
dale,  involves  •  the  erection  of  similar  works  at  the  railroad 
village  of  Zoar,  the  second  station  east  of  the  Hoosac  tunnel, 
ultimately  to  be  handled  in  connection  with  the  Vernon- 
Hinsdale  plant  and  the  proposed  other  Connecticut  river  es- 
tablishment on  the  Fifteen-Miles  falls.  The  broadly  planned 
scheme  embraces  the  erection  of  a  dam  at  Davis  bridge,  a 
high  point  in  the  Vermont  part  of  the  Deerfield,  which 
will  impound  water  lying  1400  feet  above  sea-level,  and 
the  building  of  a  contour  flume  thence  to  the  works  at 
Zoar,  which  lie  some  600  feet  above  the  sea.  There  will  be 
developed  some  25,000  horsepower  for.  distribution  to  rail- 
roads, factories  and  other  patrons.  Of  the  waterpowers  of  the 
other  Massachusetts  tributaries  the  Chicopee  and  its  branches 
are  the  most  fully  developed.  At  Windsor  locks,  the  one  point 

[  108  ] 


New  -England  Waterpowers 

in  the  river's  passage  through  Connecticut  to  its  finish  at  the 
the  sound  where  power  is  systematically  utilized,  the  develop- 
ment is  as  complete  in  its  way  as  at  larger  points  above ;  and 
the  power  here  is  busily  employed  by  substantial  paper  mills, 
silk  mills  and  other  factories.  The  powers  of  the  larger  tribu- 
taries entering  in  the  reach,  too,  are  well  utilized:  those  on 
the  Farmington,  or  Tunix,  the  principal  tributary  in  this 
state,  joining  at  old  Windsor,  to  the  largest  extent.  The 
others  of  note  are  the  Scantic,  entering  at  East  Windsor ; 
the  Podunk  at  South  Windsor ;  the  Sabethe  at  Middletown ; 
the  Salmon  at  East  Haddam. 

Of  all  the  large  power-producing  rivers  of  New  England 
the  Blackstone  is  the  one  stream  loaded  closest  to  its  full 
capacity.  It  has  been  called  the  "  best  harnessed  river  in  the 
United  States  " ;  and  it  is  the  busiest,  with  its  more  than  a 
hundred  mills  lining  its  short  course  of  less  than  fifty  miles 
and  its  tributaries.  Yet,  as  Winthrop  Packard  has  pointed 
out,  it  is  today  so  poorly  harnessed  that  a  vast  bulk  of  its 
energy  goes  to  waste. 

Wrote  Professor  Swain  at  the  conclusion  of  his  survey  of  the 
waterpowers  of  the  United  States,  considering  all  the  condi- 
tions :  "  It  must  be  allowed  that  on  the  Atlantic  slope  the 
streams  of  New  England  are  in  all  respects  the  most  favor- 
able for  waterpower " ;  and  the  array  of  favorable  circum- 
stances "  may  well  entitle  New  England  to  tjie  first  rank  as 
a  waterpower  district."  Says  another  authority :  "  In  respect 
to  its  richness  in  waterpowers  developed  and  potential  and 
its  adaptability  to  long-distance  transmission  of  electricity 
as  a  motive  power  for  communities  and  transportation  lines 
far  removed  from  the  initial  sources  of  energy,  New  Eng- 
land ranks  high  among  the  various  sections  of  the  country." 
These  are  conservative  statements  of  our  six  New  England 
states.  In  fact,  they  are  unsurpassed. 


109 


New  England  Agriculture 

OPPORTUNITY  awaits  the  man  who  engages  in  agriculture 
in  New  England.  This  is  true  of  the  farmer  already  here,  who 
should  henceforth  widen  his  horizon  and  enlarge  his  occupa- 
tion of  the  field.  It  is  also  true  of  the  man  west  or  south  of 
New  England  with  inquiring  eyes  turned  in  this  direction. 
The  first  named,  thus  far,  with  some  notable  exceptions,  has 
nbt  wholly  lived  up  to  his  opportunities.  The  second,  very 
properly  asks  to  be  "  shown." 

New  England  agriculture  for  various  reasons  is  worth 
while  in  every  sense  of  the  term ;  it  still  has  an  abundance  of 
relatively  cheap  and  fertile  lands,  making  it  possible  to  suc- 
cessfully undertake  farming  without  heavy  outlay  of  capital ; 
it  has  nearjiess  to  the  best  cash  markets  in  the  world;  its 
farm  products  bring  high  prices ;  it  shows  a  practically  un- 
limited outlet  right  at  home  for  more  than  New  England  can 
produce;  rates  of  freight  to  markets  are  especially  low  com- 
pared with  the  long  hauls  further  west,  though  not  yet  as  low 
as  they  should  be,  in  some  instances. 

As  a  side-light  on  this  general  summary,  here  is  an  incident 
which  actually  took  place,  in  the  autumn  of  1910,  on  the  oc- 
casion of  a  field  meeting  of  the  Connecticut  fruit  growers. 
Extensive  orchards  in  profitable  bearing  were  in  the  fore- 
ground, fruit  being  harvested ;  quick,  nearby  markets  assured 
short  haul  and  high  prices.  Among  the  visitors  was  a  repre- 
sentative of  the  famous  Hood  River,  Oregon,  fruit  section. 
He  acknowledged  the  impressiveness  of  the  attractive  money- 
making  proposition  spread  out  before  him  on  that  Connecti- 
cut hillside.  Turning  to  J.  H.  Hale,  the  peach  king  of 
Connecticut  and  Georgia,  the  Oregon  man  asked  where  could 
be  found  similar  splendid  opportunities  to  buy  orchard  sites. 
'  There,  directly  across  the  road,"  came  the  quick  positive 
response  of  Mr.  Hale;  "  and  over  yonder  is  another  just  as 

r  no  i 


New  England  Agriculture 

good.  And  more  and  more  of  these  splendid  orchard  sites  all 
the  way  up  through  Connecticut  and  western  Massachusetts; 
and,  in  fact,  through  most  of  the  distance  still  further  north 
to  the  Canadian  line." 

AREA  OF  THE  SIX  NEW  ENGLAND  STATES 
IN  SQUAIIE  MILES 

Total  Land  Water 

Maine  33,040  29,895  3,145 

New  Hampshire  9,341  9,031  310 

Vermont  9,564  9,124  440 

Massachusetts  8,266  8,039  227 

Connecticut  4,965  4,820  145 

Rhode  Island  1,248  1,067  181 

Total 66,424  61,976  4,448 

For  so  many  decades  of  years  has  agriculture  been  promi- 
nent in  New  England  that  it  may  seem  unnecessary  to  give 
much  attention  here  to  its  topography,  its  physical  charac- 
teristics, its  rainfall  and  its  climate.  Yet  it  is  not  amiss  to 
remind  the  reader  that  in  these  things  New  England  has  much 
which  is  really  advantageous  for  the  pursuit  of  farming. 

As  latitudes  go,  New  England  is  fairly  well  to  the  north. 
Yet,  a  glance  at  the  map  will  show  it,  in  this  respect,  fully  as 
favorably  located  as  many  other  portions  of  the  country 
which  are  given  over  to  crop  production.  In  fact,  the  matter 
of  a  northerly  latitude  has  long  since  proved  its  real  worth  in 
the  turning  out  of  fruits,  vegetables,  cereals,  and  grass  crops 
of  the  highest  order. 

Within  a  comparatively  short  time,  scientists,  making  a 
special  study  of  cereal  culture,  have  presented  strong  argu- 
ments to  show  that  such  small  grains  as  wheat,  rye,  and  oats 
make  a  heavier  rate  of  yield  to  the  acre  in  northerly  latitudes 
than  further  south.  The  heavy  rate  of  yield  of  wheat  in  Eng- 
land is  somewhere  around  thirty-three  bushels  to  an  acre,  and 
nearly  as  much  in  northern  France  and  in  the  Netherlands, 
against  our  own  average  in  the  United  States  of  only  fourteen 
to  sixteen  bushels.  For  that  matter,  it  is  not  necessary  to 
cross  the  Atlantic  ocean  to  find  positive  evidences  of  what  may 

[  HI  1 


New  England 

be  accomplished  in  northern  latitudes.  In  western  Canada, 
four  hundred  miles  north  of  the  international  boundary  line, 
magnificent  crops  of  wheat  and  oats  are  now  grown.  The 
Canadian  wheat  crop  of  1910  alone  was  something  like  one  hun- 
dred million  bushels.  Going  still  further  north  in  the  western 
hemisphere  wheat  is  produced  each  season  in  the  Peace  River 
valley  at  a  latitude  of  58  degrees,  whereas  the  northernmost 
point  of  Maine  is  only  48  degrees. 

AREA  IN  NEW  ENGLAND   UNDER  FARMS 


Number  of 

Average  no. 

Percent 

farms 

Total  acres 

acres  to  farm 

improved 

Maine 

59,299 

6,299,946 

106.2 

37.9 

New  Hampshire 

29,324 

3,609,864 

123.1 

29.8 

Vermont 

33,104 

4,724,440 

142.7 

45.0 

Massachusetts 

37,715 

3,147,064 

83.4 

41.1 

Connecticut 

26,948 

2,312,083 

85.8 

46.0 

Rhode  Island 

5,498 

455,602 

82.9 

41.1 

United  States 

146.2 

49.4 

Keeping  away  from  technicalities  in  a  plain  statement  of 
agricultural  conditions  in  New  England,  it  will  suffice  to  re- 
mind the  reader  that  in  this  moderately  high  latitude,  as  well 
as  those  still  further  north,  the  sun  gets  in  its  work  very  early 
in  the  day,  during  practically  all  of  the  growing  season,  and 
continues  until  a  late  hour  in  the  afternoon.  Thus  a  field  of 
grain,  or  cultivated  crop,  or  small  fruit,  receives  during  the 
growing  season  in  each  day  of  clear  sky  a  maximum  of  sun- 
shine, forcing  nature  in  its  work  of  development,  maturity, 
and  full  fruition. 

PRESIDENT  BUTTERFIELD'S  OPINION 

The  condition  and  prospects  of  agriculture  in  New  Eng- 
land are  thus  conservatively  summarized  by  President  Ken- 
yon  L.  Butterfield  of  the  Massachusetts  Agricultural  College : 

"  I  came  to  New  England  eight  years  ago.  I  soon  formed 
a  very  optimistic  belief  in  regard  to  the  future  of  agriculture 
in  New  England,  and  that  belief  has  strengthened  with  the 
years. 

"  Of   course,   there   are   difficulties,   drawbacks,   problems. 


New  England  Agriculture 

For  one  thing,  we  have  to  admit  the  spotted  character  of  the 
land.  There  is  no  great  area  of  uniformly  rich  soil.  The  soil 
on  a  given  farm  is  often  of  many  different  types.  A  single 
town  may  have  good  and  poor  land.  This  fact  makes  it  diffi- 
cult to  localize  a  given  crop  and  bring  to  the  community  a 
great  reputation  for  a  specialty. 

"  All  over  the  north  at  least  farm  labor  is  scarce,  but  per- 
haps New  England  farmers  suffer  more  than  any  others  be- 
cause of  the  presence  of  the  large  number  of  mill  villages  which 
tempt  farm  boys  and  girls  from  the  surrounding  regions  to 
steady  positions,  even  at  small  wages,  in  exchange  for  what 
have  seemed  to  be  the  uncertainties  of  the  farm. 

"  Farmers  everywhere  have  failed  to  cooperate,  but  per- 
haps the  failure  is  more  marked  in  New  England  than  any- 
where else.  The  New  England  farmer  likes  to  '  paddle  his  own 
canoe.'  Of  course,  individual  farmers  of  superior  intelligence 
make  more  profit  in  this  way  than  they  perhaps  would  by 
cooperating,  but  agriculture  as  a  whole  is  put  to  a  great  dis- 
advantage. The  individual  method  of  marketing,  for  instance, 
is  a  very  costly  one.  This  might  not  matter  so  much  to  the 
farmer  if  the  consumer  paid  all  the  costs  of  marketing,  but 
unfortunately  he  does  not.  A  clumsy  system  of  marketing 
robs  the  farmer  of  some  of  his  profit. 

"  Although  New  England  has  a  small  area,  and  is  inter- 
laced with  a  network  of  steam  and  trolley  roads,  nevertheless 
the  facilities  for  cheap  transportation  of  farm  products  to 
the  nearby  markets  are  not  as  good  as  one  might  expect.  It 
costs  more  for  the  average  New  England  farmer  to  get  his 
goods  to  his  market  than  it  ought  to  cost,  and  this  fact  makes 
the  competition  with  the  western  and  southern  growers  more 
serious  than  would  otherwise  be  the  case. 

"  But  these  difficulties  simply  mean  problems  to  be  solved. 
They  are  not  insuperable  difficulties.  On  the  other  hand,  there 
are  positive  and  real  advantages  possessed  by  the  New  Eng- 
land farmers.  The  first  is  the  market.  It  is  a  big  market.  It 
consists  not  only  of  the  great  city  of  Boston  but  of  many 
minor  cities  and  villages,  altogether  making  a  large  consum- 
ing population  within  restricted  area.  The  market  is  near  the 

f  113  1 


New  England  Agriculture 

average  farmer.  It  is  a  growing  market.  Nearly  all  the  New 
England  cities  have  shown  a  tendency  toward  growth  during 
the  last  ten  years.  It  is  a  high  grade  market,  calling  for 
products  of  quality.  It  is  a  sympathetic  market;  that  is  to 
say,  if  the  proper  steps  are  taken  the  New  England  con- 
sumers will  express  a  preference  for  New  England  grown 
products. 

"  It  is  sometimes  asserted  that  the  soil  of  New  England  is  a 
drawback.  On  the  contrary,  it  is  an  asset.  True,  there  are 
many  square  miles  in  New  England  consisting  of  ledges, 
others  almost  plastered  with  boulders;  but  wherever  there  is 
clear  soil  it  is  good  soil  —  the  very  best.  There  are  areas  that 
are  worn,  because  they  have  been  over-cropped  and  misman- 
aged, but  all  the  New  England  soils  respond  bounteously  to 
proper  treatment. 

"  There  are  some  special  advantages.  The  rainfall  in  New 
England  is  abundant,  and  well  distributed,  as  a  rule,  through- 
out the  growing  season.  This  is  shown  in  the  marvelous  tree 
growths.  Forestry  therefore  can  be  made  a  permanent  agri- 
cultural sub-industry.  Fruit  trees  grow  vigorously  also. 

"  And  then  there  is  the  fruit  flavor.  It  may  be  soil,  it  may 
be  climate,  it  may  be  the  altitude  of  some  of  the  hills ;  but  no 
matter  what  it  is,  there  are  few  spots  on  earth  where  apples 
particularly  take  on  a  better  flavor  than  in  New  England. 
This  is  an  asset  of  tremendous  importance. 

"  The  grass-growing  areas  in  New  England  are  unsur- 
passed for  native  power  in  producing  good  hay.  Even  the  hill- 
side pastures  are  of  superior  quality.  The  Lord  intended  that 
in  New  England  there  should  be  *  cattle  on  a  thousand  hills,' 
and  it  is  only  man's  fault  that  there  are  not.  We  might  add 
sheep,  too,  to  the  same  category,  if  it  were  not  for  the  curse 
of  curs. 

"  The  fact  of  greatest  promise  is  that  we  are  undergoing  a 
great  awakening  in  New  England  agriculture.  Farmers  have 
a  new  look  of  hope.  Business  men  are  particularly  interested. 
Leaders  in  community  life  are  interesting  themselves  in  the 
country  problem.  All  New  England  is  stirring  as  perhaps 
never  before  in  all  its  history,  with  things  agricultural." 

[  115] 


New  England 


THE  GENERAL  OUTLOOK 

This  brief  summary  by  President  Butterfield  expresses  the 
most  conservative  views.  A  permanent  and  gratifying  success 
should,  in  the  years  to  come  even  more  than  ever  before,  at- 
tend farming  in  New  England.  This  is  true  of  the  men  and 
women  living  here  and  engaged  in  some  phase  of  agriculture. 
It  is  also  true  of  those  outside  the  confines  of  the  six  states, 
who  may  be  impelled  through  the  authenticated  records  to 
cast  their  lot  in  New  England.  Farmers  now  engaged  in  this 
pursuit  will  remain  here.  Not  in  many  years  have  they  been 
so  well  satisfied  with  agriculture  in  New  England  as  today  — 
in  the  ledger  account,  the  cash  box,  the  home  life,  and  social 
opportunities. 

Farmers  not  now  in  New  England,  but  who  are  considering 
the  advisability  of  coming  here,  will  have  read  this  book  in  vain 
if  they  do  not  adequately  grasp  the  facts  portrayed.  In  the 
briefest  sort  of  way,  attention  is  called  to  these  advantages : 
Relative  cheapness  of  good  farming  lands;  productivity  of 
soil  and  ease  in  working  it  when  properly  handled;  profits 
in  various  staple  crops  and  New  England  specialties ;  good 
roads ;  nearness  to  the  best  and  highest  cash  markets  in  the 
world ;  a  network  of  rural  free  delivery  routes,  and  passenger, 
freight,  and  express  trolley  lines,  and  telephones ;  the  best 
schools,  colleges,  and  libraries  in  the  world ;  freedom  from  the 
isolation  of  the  less  settled  communities ;  social  life  of  a  high 
character  and  atmosphere ;  environment  conducive  to  the  best 
things  in  the  home  life.  As  to  financial  returns,  no  section  of 
the  country  can  show  better  results,  considering  the  risk.  New 
England  lands  are  notably  moderate  to  low  in  price.  They 
will  produce  the  best  and  biggest  crops,  and  the  markets  are 
right  at  the  farmer's  door.  However  poor  in  purse  a  man  may 
be,  if  he  has  grit,  amtition,  and  real  purpose,  he  cannot  fail 
to  succeed  in  New  England. 

Land  values  in  the  agricultural  sections  have  shown  a  posi- 
tive hardening  tendency  during  recent  years.  Not  very  long 
ago  a  personal  investigation  was  made  throughout  various 


New  England  Agriculture 

New  England  states,  among  farmers,  real  estate  men,  and 
bankers,  with  a  view  of  determining  just  what  had  been  the 
trend  of  values  during,  say,  a  five-  or  ten-year  period.  This 
proved  the  statement  of  an  appreciation  in  prices  of  farm 
lands.  Reference  is  made  entirely  to  lands  intended  for  farm 
operations,  distinct  from  those  having  a  present  or  prospec- 
tive "  town  lot  "  value.  Land  cannot  be  quoted  by  any  hard  or 
fast  rule  in  the  same  sense  as  can  No.  1  hard  wheat,  or  pack- 
ing hogs,  or  pig  iron,  or  municipal  bonds,  which  have  a  fluctu- 
ating value  from  day  to  day,  but  the  drift  of  testimony  from 
farmers  and  the  record  of  sales  show  a  firmer  tone  in  the  sale 
price  of  agricultural  lands  in  New  England. 

Farm  lands  command  a  wide  range  of  prices.  It  is  safe  to 
say  that  in  some  of  the  hill  towns,  where  there  are  great 
stretches  of  rough  land,  with  here  and  there  a  bit  of  tillable 
soil,  purchases  may  be  made  at  the  remarkably  low  price  of 
$10  per  acre,  or  less.  But  in  such  instances  the  land  is  not  well 
suited  to  cultivated  crops,  or  even  to  meadows,  and  may  be 
remote  from  a  railroad.  Such  areas  have  attraction  in  the  way 
of  grazing  sheep  and  goats,  or  fattening  cattle.  In  the  plains 
or  uplands  are  great  stretches  of  gravel  loam  land  that  are 
well  suited,  under  proper  handling,  to  many  crops.  Such  land 
can  be  bought  at  medium  prices.  The  rich  valleys  and  river 
bottoms  found  in  many  parts  of  New  England  are  especially 
well  adapted  to  growing  onions,  early  potatoes,  celery,  aspar- 
agus, and  other  truck  crops ;  also  strawberries,  roses,  vege- 
tables, etc.  Such  land,  found  in  the  Connecticut  valley,  from 
the  lower  confines  of  Vermont  and  New  Hampshire  down 
through  Massachusetts  and  Connecticut  nearly  to  Long 
Island  sound,  is  held  at  high  figures  where  particularly  well 
located,  with  soil  deep  and  rich,  and  well  calculated  to  produce 
to  perfection  some  of  these  special  crops.  This  is  also  true  of 
the  market  garden  sections,  five  to  twenty  miles  out  of  Boston, 
Worcester,  Springfield,  Hartford,  Manchester,  Portland,  etc. 
Such  soils,  while  heavy  and  often  very  black,  are  not  sticky, 
even  after  smart  rainfall,  and  are  readily  worked.  The  price 
for  land  of  this  character  runs  high ;  all  the  way  upward  from 
$400  to  $500  an  acre.  Good  potato  land  in  northern'  Maine  is 

f  117  1 


New  England 

worth  around  $100  an  acre,  and  not  infrequently  rents  by  the 
season  at  $10  and  upward  an  acre.  Near  the  large  cities  de- 
sirable land  for  truck  farming  sells  as  high  as  $1000  an  acre, 
and  gardeners  are  able  to  pay  that  price  and  coin  big  money. 
Two  and  three  crops  are  raised  on  the  same  land  each  year. 
These  specialties  include  the  general  line  of  vegetables,  such 
as  spinach,  lettuce,  radishes,  cabbage,  cauliflower,  sweet  corn, 
tomatoes,  celery,  etc. 

Agricultural  education  is  receiving  attention  in  several 
ways  in  New  England.  There  are  the  agricultural  colleges 
and  the  experiment  stations,  the  boards  of  agriculture,  the 
grange,  dairying,  and  horticultural  societies,  bee  keepers  and 
sheep  breeders  associations,  the  press,  and  latterly,  commer- 
cial organizations  and  corporations  such  as  boards  of  trade 
and  the  railroads.  Each  of  the  New  England  states  has  a  state 
agricultural  college  and  experiment  station;  Connecticut  has 
two  of  the  latter,  one  at  Storrs  and  another  at  New  Haven. 
Maine's  college  and  experiment  station  is  in  connection  with 
the  state  university  at  Orono ;  Vermont's  in  connection  with 
the  Vermont  university  at  Burlington.  The  New  Hampshire 
college  and  experiment  station  are  at  Durham ;  Massachusetts 
at  Amherst ;  Rhode  Island  at  Kingston.  Various  eastern  insti- 
tutions in  later  years  have  awakened  to  the  fact  that  it  is  not 
sufficient  to  teach  the  boys  and  girls  at  the  institution,  .and  to 
dig  out  certain  facts  connected  with  agriculture.  Important 
as  are  these,  the  institutions  must  go  further  and  do  some- 
thing for  the  farmers  who  have  not  the  time,  nor  perhaps  the 
finances,  to  take  college  courses.  They  have  learned  that  it  is 
one  thing  to  experiment  and  quite  another  to  get  the  results 
in  actual  operation  on  the  farms.  Therefore  the  colleges  and 
experiment  stations  are  featuring  what  they  term  "  extension 
work."  The  facts  learned  at  the  college  are  taken  direct  to  the 
farmers  and  applied  to  the  everyday  problems  of  the  farm. 
Demonstrations  and  object  lessons  are  given  of  approved 
methods  of  caring  for  orchards,  live  stock,  crops,  etc.  Men  in 
close  touch  with  both  the  college  and  the  rural  end  of  the 
proposition  devote  their  entire  time  to  getting  the  farmer  and 
the  institution  in  this  closer  relation.  The  purpose  is  to  dis- 

[  118  1 


New  England  Agriculture 

seminate  some  of  the  useful  information  which  in  the  past  has 
been  allowed  to  lie  in  pigeon  holes  until  it  finally  reached  the 
backyard  fire  dump.  In  close  sympathy  with  this  same  spirit  of 
practical  results  are  found  the  grange,  the  boards  of  agricul- 
ture, and  other  organizations,  aiming  to  dignify  and  uplift 
agriculture. 

While  cooperation  has  not  gained  the  foothold  in  the  East 
that  it  has  in  portions  of  the  South  and  West,  New  England 
farmers  are  rapidly  adopting  the  decisive  advantages  offered 
through  associated  effort.  Net  returns  to  New  England 
farmers  have  been  reasonably  satisfactory,  and  in  consequence 
they  have  not  been  forced  into  cooperation  as  in  other  sec- 
tions. But  they  see  what  fruit  and  vegetable  growers  are  doing 
in  other  localities  through  associated  effort  and  are  going 
after  the  same  proposition.  One  proof  of  this  is  the  work 
being  accomplished  by  milk  producers  shipping  to  the  Boston 
market.  Back  in  1899  the  price  of  milk  was  33  cents  per  8^/2 
quart  can  delivered  at  Boston.  In  the  winter  of  1909—10  the 
price  was  441/2  cents  for  the  same  quantity,  which  is  a  differ- 
ence of  11%  cents  in  favor  of  the  farmer's  pocketbook.  For 
the  amount  of  milk  sold  in  Boston  this  approximates  about 
$1,500,000  additional  for  farmers.  While  prices  have  ad- 
vanced somewhat  owing  to  natural  causes,  -the  saving  is 
largely  due  to  the  determined  fight  of  the  farmers'  milk  union. 

FARMING  OPPORTUNITY 

The  business  of  farming  has  witnessed  many  changes  in  New 
England  since  the  early  days,  and  the  experiences  of  farm 
folk  have  covered  a  wide  range.  For  several  generations,  when 
the  country  was  young,  agriculture  was  the  chief  industry 
in  New  England,  and  a  little  later  equal  with  manufactures. 
Eventually  came  a  lull  in  the  development  of  agriculture, 
coincident  with  the  opening  of  vast  prairie  stretches  from 
Ohio  westward  to  the  Mississippi  river,  and  beyond.  The  fas- 
cination of  the  new  country  caught  the  fancy  of  many  a 
sturdy  youth  and  bronzed  farmer;  with  the  result  that  great 
numbers  turned  their  faces  toward  the  setting  sun.  Then  came 

f  119  1 


New  England  Agriculture 

the  two  decades  of  years  following  the  close  of  the  Civil  War, 
when  agriculture  in  New  England  was  at  a  comparatively  low 
ebb.  But  this  westward  trend  was  not  to  continue  uninter- 
rupted. With  the  early  '90's  the  fact  was  borne  into  thought- 
ful minds,  as  had  not  been  the  case  for  generations,  that 

OCTOBER  PRICES 

WHOLESALE  PRICES  AT  BOSTON  STANDARD  GRADES  COMPARED  WITH  OTHER 
DISTRIBUTING  CENTERS 

Boston  New  York     Chicago  St.  Louis 

Creamery  butter  per  Ib.  31>6c.  31c.  29c.  Sl^ic. 

Cheese  per  Ib.  17c.  17c.  16c.  17c. 

Timothy  hay  per  ton  $24  $22  $20  $18 

Apples  per  bbl.  $4  $4  $3.50  $4.25 

Yellow  corn  per  bu.  68}^c.  66c.  55c.  57c. 

White  oats  per  bu.  42^c.  38c.  35c.  35c. 

Eggs  per  doz.  32c.  28c.  23c.  22c. 

Live  fowls  per  Ib.  18c.  17c.  14c.  12^c. 

Onions  per  bu.  65c.  50c.  45c.  45c. 

agriculture  in  New  England  might  be  made  particularly  force- 
ful and  effective,  in  the  production  of  crops  and  feed  products, 
with  profit  to  the  farmer,  in  comfort  and  uplift  in  the  social 
and  home  life  of  the  farmer's  family.  The  swing  of  the  pen- 
dulum which  had  been  outward  was  now  inward.  The  tide, 
which  some  of  the  friends  of  New  England  feared  was  an  ebb- 
ing one,  became  a  flowing  tide.  Individuals  and  farm  commu- 
nities, which  at  one  time  had  become  less  courageous,  caught 
their  second  wind,  and  came  to  a  realizing  sense  that  oppor- 
tunities were  within  their  grasp,  and,  best  of  all,  right  at  home. 
Nor  was  this  keener  appreciation  of  environment  and  oppor- 
tunities confined  wholly  to  plain  everyday  farmers.  Specialists 
who  had  foresight  to  discern  a  profitable  field  in  various 
branches  of  agriculture,  such  as  peach  growing,  apple  or- 
charding, and  poultry  production,  bought  up  farms  or  in- 
creased their  holdings,  enlarged  their  plans  and  accentuated 
their  energies.  Furthermore,  an  increasing  number  of  city 
residents,  both  in  and  out  of  New  England,  recognized  "  the 
growing  pains  "  and  gave  utterance  to  their  longing  to  ac- 
quire a  home  for  all  or  part  of  the  year  in  the  quiet  valleys,  on 
pleasant  plains,  or  glistening  hilltops.  Not  that  there  was 
any  frenzy  or  appropriation  of  agricultural  lands  perhaps  in 

[  121  1 


New  England 

many  instances  ill-timed,  as  that  would  not  have  been  a  healthy 
development.  On  the  contrary,  the  movement  looking  toward 
appropriations  and  opportunities  in  New  England  agricul- 
ture have  been  gradual,  yet  persistent  and  readily  discernible 
in  recent  years.  To  one  who  has  made  a  careful  study  of  the 
situation  for  a  long  time,  and  is  therefore  well  equipped  to 
draw  deductions,  it  may  be  said  without  slightest  fear  of  effec- 
tive contradiction  that  farming  in  these  six  states  has  in  re- 
cent years  undergone  a  decided  change  for  the  better,  in 
hopefulness,  in  endeavor,  in  uplift,  in  real  tangible  accom- 
plishments. In  agriculture,  as  in  other  directions,  New  Eng- 
land has  taken  on  a  most  optimistic  spirit,  highly  gratifying 
to  all,  with  further  widening  hopes  and  plans. 

In  the  present  work-a-day  world,  agriculture  in  New  Eng- 
land naturally  divides  itself  into  two  classes.  One  of  these  in- 
cludes the  standbys  of  passing  years  —  the  general  crops, 
such  as  hay,  potatoes,  corn,  the  development  of  meadow  lands, 
dairying;  the  other,  special  crops,  such  as  apples,  onions,  to- 
bacco, small  fruits,  cranberries,  lettuce,  garden  truck,  garden- 
ing under  glass,  rose  culture,  etc.  The  principles  of  agricul- 
ture pertain  here,  as  elsewhere,  and  scientific  methods  are  as 
keenly  followed  as  in  any  state  in  the  Union.  Every  common- 
wealth has  its  agricultural  college  and  experiment  station. 
Every  state  has  its  agricultural  department.  These  various 
energies  are  active  in  the  carrying  on  of  farmers'  institutes, 
of  the  better  farming  trains,  of  encouragement  to  local  and 
state  organizations,  relating  specifically  to  dairying,  to  horti- 
culture, to  breeding  and  feeding  live  stock,  etc.  Under  such 
benign  influences,  together  with  the  ever-forceful  aid  of  the 
agricultural  press,  how  could  it  be  otherwise  than  that  the 
farmers  of  New  England  should  follow  approved  methods  and 
bring  forth  yields  sixty  and  a  hundred  fold? 

The  question  of  farm  labor  very  properly  comes  to  the 
front  in  contemplating  the  farm  proposition,  whether  in  or 
out  of  New  England.  It  is  a  problem  everywhere.  All  are 
familiar  with  the  newspaper  yarns  about  the  frenzied  Kansas 
farmers  at  harvest  time  rounding  up  with  a  shotgun  all  avail- 
able "  timber  "  for  work  in  the  wheat  field.  Nor  is  this  entirely 

[  122  ] 


New  England  Agriculture 

a  fairy  tale.  The  problem  is  one  which  must  be  carefully 
handled  everywhere.  In  this  respect  New  England  is  possibly 
better  off  than  some  other  parts  of  the  country.  The  cities  and 
large  towns  are  liable  to  have  an  excess  of  labor,  and  with 
well-distributed  trolley  systems  it  is  not  wholly  difficult  to  get 
farm  laborers  to  go  into  the  country.  This  is  especially  true 
where  the  farmer  uses  good  judgment,  tact,  and  kindness  in 
the  treatment  of  farm  hands.  What  is  true  of  this  economic 
proposition  in  New  England  is  true  of  it  elsewhere;  that  the 
time  may  be  approaching  when  the  farmers  will  find  it  neces- 
sary, practicable,  and  satisfactory  to  deal  with  the  farm  help 
—  as  is  the  case  with  the  industrial  world  —  in  a  spirit  of 
fairness,  exact  a  reasonable  day's  labor  for  a  day's  wage,  and 
thus  elevate  the  farm  labor  question  to  the  same  plane  it  occu- 
pies in  factory,  shop,  and  mill.  The  introduction  of  a  generous 
use  of  labor-saving  farm  machinery  and  farm  devices  has  done 
much  in  New  England  to  solve  the  labor  question.  Tobacco 
and  cabbage  plants  are  set  by  machinery,  spray  pumps  are 
operated  by  compressed  air  or  gasoline  engines,  the  hydraulic 
ram  and  the  windmill  pump  the  water  for  both  barn  and 
house;  the  silage  cutter,  the  blower,  the  bone  cutter,  and  the 
feed  mill  are  operated  by  compact  and  inexpensive  power 
plants.  Horse-propelled  machinery  spreads  the  fertilizers  and 
the  lime,  drills  the  seed,  plants  and  digs  the  potatoes.  Thus 
the  labor  question  is  not  an  insurmountable  one  to  the  busi- 
ness farmer ;  and,  after  all,  it  is  the  business  farmer  who  gets 
along,  in  the  same  sense  that  does  the  business  tradesman,  the 
business  artisan,  or  the  business  manufacturer. 

The  grange  in  New  England  is  nearly  200,000  strong.  In 
each  state  there  are  cooperative  stores  or  associations  saving 
farmers  hundreds  of  dollars.  For  instance,  Houlton,  Me., 
grange  for  the  six  months  ending  June  11,  1909,  did  a  busi- 
ness of  $164,974.  Of  this  amount  about  $10,000  was  for  flour, 
$5000  for  sugar,  and  $11,000  for  grass  seed.  This  grange 
owns  its  own  blacksmith  shop,  flour  and  grist  mill,  livery 
stable,  etc.  The  Massachusetts  state  grange  has  a  cooperative 
association,  and  from  January  to  August  handled  100  cars  of 
grain,  15  cars  of  flour,  800  tons  of  chemicals;  which  figured 

[  123  1 


New  England 

out  about  $4000  saved  to  members  on  fertilizers,  $3000  on 
flour,  and  $4000  on  grain.  The  grange  has  cooperative  fire 
insurance  companies ;  the  New  Hampshire  organizations  hav- 
ing something  like  $6,000,000  outstanding  insurance,  Massa- 
chusetts, $3,000,000,  Maine,  $2,000,000,  and  Rhode  Island 
and  Vermont  smaller  sums.  Both  cooperative  buying  and  sell- 
ing are  under  consideration  by  the  grangers  and  farmers  in 
general.  In  many  localities  a  group  of  neighbors,  not  mem- 
bers of  the  grange,  combine  and  order  a  car  of  grain  for  their 
stock.  Cooperative  cow-testing  associations  and  breeders  as- 
sociations are  rapidly  being  formed.  Maine  has  eight  of  the 
former  and  four  of  the  latter.  Plans  are  on  foot  for  a  big 
commercial  fruit  growers  organization  in  Maine  which  will  do 
business  along  the  lines  featured  in  Hood  River  valley  and  in 
other  famous  far  western  apple  territories. 

No  section  of  the  country  has  better  facilities  for  organ- 
izing cooperative  work  than  New  England.  The  grange,  a 
farmers'  organization,  is  the  natural  avenue  through  which 
this  can  be  launched,  and  in  no  place  in  the  world  are  there  so 
many  granges  as  in  the  East.  New  Hampshire  actually  has 
more  granges  than  there  are  towns  in  the  State.  This  is  ac- 
counted for  by  there  being  five  or  six  lodges  in  some  of  the 
larger  towns.  It  is  difficult  for  a  farmer  to  find  a  farm  in 
New  England  which  is  not  reasonably  near  some  grange,  so 
well  is  the  territory  organized  along  grange  lines.  While  some 
of  these  local  lodges  are  city  granges,  so-called,  catering  more 
especially  to  the  social  and  entertainment  features,  the  major- 
ity are  true  farmers  organizations. 

THE  NEW  ENGLAND  STATES 

Maine  is  well  watered  with  innumerable  lakes  and  ponds, 
while  the  rivers  and  small  streams  do  much  to  conserve  the  in- 
terests of  the  valleys  and  fertile  fields.  The  northern  counties 
in  the  State  have  a  comparatively  short  season  for  crop  grow- 
ing, yet  the  energy  of  the  sun,  combined  with  generous  rain- 
fall, makes  that  territory,  particularly  Aroostook  county, 
famous  for  its  crops.  Alluvial  plains  of  remarkable  fertility 

[  124  ] 


New  England  Agriculture 

are  found  throughout  much  of  the  State,  which  show  evidences 
of  having  been  at  one  time  bottoms  of  old  lakes  long  since 
dried  up  or  drained  out.  While  much  of  Maine  is  rugged  and 
broken  by  high  hills  and  ranges  of  mountains,  there  still  re- 
main large  areas  of  cultivated  land,  some  of  which  in  recent 
years  has  been  brought  up  to  a  high  state  of  fertility.  In  this 
respect  Maine  is  identified  with  "  extensive  agriculture  "  more 
peculiarly  than  other  eastern  states.  To  the  man  with  a  wide 
horizon  who  has  made  a  study  of  agriculture  east  and  west, 
farming  in  Maine  is  easily  comparable,  even  though  on  some- 
what smaller  scale,  to  conditions  in  the  Middle  West.  The 
Aroostook  in  the  northeastern  part  of  the  State  comprises 
probably  the  largest  area  given  over  to  fertile  farming  land  in 
New  England.  The  State,  agriculturally  speaking,  devotes 
most  attention  to  such  crops  as  grass,  potatoes,  apples,  all  of 
these  being  very  successfully  produced  on  a  large  scale.  Cereal 
culture  has  not  been  accorded  very  much  attention,  although 
within  the  past  ten  years  some  notable  successes  have  been 
made  in  wheat,  oats,  and  rye,  with  the  tendency  for  still  fur- 
ther attainment.  In  such  specialties  as  potatoes  and  apples  the 
very  best  agriculture  is  followed.  Hay  and  forage  crops  are 
given  much  attention  and  the  yield  is  very  heavy.  Maine  is 
each  year  becoming  more  of  a  dairy  state,  requiring  enormous 
amounts  of  feed  of  this  character.  While  stock  raising  is  car- 
ried on  in  a  somewhat  limited  manner,  interest  and  the  best 
thought  of  agriculture  in  northern  New  England  favor  going 
more  and  more  into  breeding  and  feeding  meat  animals,  in 
dairying,  and  in  the  production  of  horses. 

While  the  Granite  State  can  boast  of  the  highest  mountain 
in  the  eastern  part  of  United  States,  it  also  has  many  fertile 
plateaus  and  delightful  valleys.  Nor  are  all  of  these  given 
over  to  summer  homes.  In  the  growing  season  precipitation  is 
usually  ample  for  the  production  of  crops.  In  fact,  a  note- 
worthy thing  about  all  of  New  England  is  its  general  freedom 
from  serious  drought.  To  the  man  born  and  reared  in  New 
England,  such  things  as  "  hot  winds,"  the  "  firing  of  corn," 
and  ruin  of  crops  by  reason  of  continued  high  temperatures 
and  absence  of  rainfall  is  practically  unknown.  The  State  is 

[  125  1  " 


MB.  J.   H    HALE  AND  ONE  OF  HTS  APPLE  TREES  AT  SEYMOUR,  CONN. 


New  England  Agriculture 

well  drained  by  numerous  streams  of  water.  In  passing,  it  is 
not  amiss  to  mention  the  considerable  wealth  of  forests  found 
in  the  upper  half  of  the  State.  As  to  crops,  hay  is  a  leader, 
with  the  dairy  industry  prominent,  while  increasing  attention 
is  being  given  to  apples.  If  New  Hampshire  is  growing  less  in 
the  way  of  cereals  than  years  ago  it  is  because  its  farmers  find 
it  more  profitable  to  use  the  land  in  some  other  way,  buying 
needed  feed  stuffs  and  grain.  In  recent  years  enlarged  atten- 
tion has  been  given  to  the  growing  of  silage  corn,  which  is  now 
considered  a  requisite  in  the  well  established  dairy.  The  potato 
crop  is  also  an  important  one  in  New  Hampshire,  while  small 
fruits  and  truck  farming-  are  given  much  attention. 

Bounded  on  the  east  by  the  Connecticut  valley  and  the 
stream  which  gives  this  its  name,  and  on  the  west  by  Lake 
Champlain,  Vermont  is  a  land  of  hills,  mountains,  fields,  and 
meadows.  A  healthful  and  bracing  climate  adds  to  its  attrac- 
tiveness. It  has  a  reasonable  amount  of  heat  and  cold.  In  the 
valleys,  especially  in  the  western  portion  of  the  State,  there  is 
much  land  which  is  well  adapted  to  the  production  of  crops, 
and  agriculture  has  always  constituted  the  leading  industry. 
Under  the  influence  of  intelligent  farming  the  rate  of  yield  to 
the  acre  is  high.  While  the  '80s  and  early  '90s  found  many 
Vermont  farmers  turning  their  faces  toward  the  cheap  lands 
in  the  West,  a  better  feeling  has  prevailed  in  recent  years,  with 
an  appreciable  uplift  in  agricultural  conditions.  As  to  crops, 
hay  is  the  leader,  while  liberal  quantities  of  oats  and  potatoes 
are  grown,  with  an  important  output  each  season  of  barley, 
buckwheat,  and  maple  sugar.  Vermont  seems  particularly 
adapted  to  apples  and  plums,  the  fruit  showing  high  color, 
good  flavor,  and  quality. 

While  the  river  valleys  with  very  heavy  soils  are  usually 
considered  more  attractive  in  point  of  producing  capacity, 
Massachusetts  has  many  evidences  of  agricultural  prosperity 
in  its  higher  plateaus  and  hill  towns.  West  of  the  Connecticut 
river,  which  cuts  the  State  squarely  in  two  from  north  to 
south,  Massachusetts  is  much  broken,  yet  agriculture  is  force- 
ful, even  in  such  elevated  areas  and  narrow  confines  as  some 
of  the  valleys  hedged  in  by  the  Berkshire  hills.  Eastward  from 

[  127  1 


New  England 

the  Connecticut  river  the  topography  of  the  State  is  more 
gently  marked  by  low  hills  and  great  stretches  of  plains,  slop- 
ing gradually  to  the  sea-coast,  and  elevation  entirely  disap- 
pearing in  the  famous  cranberry  bogs  and  sandy  beaches  of 
Barnstable  and  Plymouth  counties.  As  to  climate,  it  is  in  the 
middle  of  the  north  temperate  zone,  temperatures  showing  a 
fairly  wide  range.  Yet  the  frost  period  from  December  to 
March  is  not  severe  upon  orchards  and  other  crops,  while  the 
growing  season  is  favored  by  generally  sufficient  and  well  dis- 
tributed rainfall.  This,  with  the  genial  sunshine  and  higher 
temperature  of  mid-summer,  force  to  the  greatest  perfection 
the  crops  for  which  Massachusetts  is  famous,  such  as  corn, 
cigar-leaf  tobacco,  apples,  and  small  fruits,  onions,  potatoes, 
etc.  Massachusetts  has  a  larger  population  than  any  other 
New  England  state,  and  the  proportion  of  the  people  actually 
engaged  in  agriculture  is  relatively  small.  Such  portions  as  are 
not  adapted  to  agriculture  are  receiving  attention  on  the  part 
of  the  farmers  and  others  who  are  interested  in  forestry. 

In  the  development  along  agricultural  lines  in  the  last 
decade  of  years  Connecticut  might  properly  be  called  "  the 
land  of  the  rosy  peach;"  for  this  great  commercial  crop  has 
become  one  of  the  fascinating  features  of  Connecticut  agricul- 
ture, and  the  State  now  takes  second  place  to  no  other  as  a 
producer  of  this  fruit.  As  in  other  parts  of  New  England, 
grass  is  the  leading  crop.  Hay,  ever  and  always,  in  this  part 
of  the  country,  commands  very  high  prices.  The  farm  value 
of  hay,  according  to  official  figures,  is  higher  in  Connecticut 
than  in  any  other  state,  being  placed  at  $19.30  per  ton.  The 
valley  land  of  the  Connecticut  is  particularly  well  suited  to 
extensive  farming,  and  some  remarkable  yields  have  been  made 
in  grasses,  in  tobacco,  and  in  corn.  The  rougher  portions  of 
the  State  further  east  afford  great  possibilities  in  grazing  at 
a  low  cost.  Owing  to  the  fact  of  many  large  manufacturing 
centers,  the  home  markets  for  fruit,  truck,  dairy  products, 
poultry,  and  eggs  are  large. 

Small  in  size  but  big  in  accomplishment,  Rhode  Island  is 
more  than  a  great  industrial  center,  or  a  political  ganglion. 
While  part  of  its  area  is  rather  rough  land,  even  that  is  well 

[  128  1 


New  England  Agriculture 

adapted  to  pastures  and  dairying.  In  the  truck  sections,  close 
to  tidewater,  splendid  crops  of  potatoes  and  other  vegetables 
are  produced.  There  are  several  notable  apple  orchards,  and 
many  examples  of  the  most  advanced  farming  ideas.  In  the 
eastern  part  of  the  State  the  poultry  industry  has  been  de- 
veloped to  a  high  state  of  perfection. 

NEW  ENGLAND  CROPS 

It  is  difficult  to  say  just  what  is  the  most  important  of  the 
special  crops  which  succeed  abundantly  in  New  England.  Sev- 
eral of  them  stand  out  prominently,  including  cigar-leaf  to- 
bacco, apples,  and  onions.  The  potato  might  very  properly  be 
classed  as  a  specialty,  certainly  in  a  few  counties,  although  it 
is  grown  generally.  Cranberries  form  a  highly  specialized  crop 
in  a  few  sections;  so  with  sweet  corn  for  canning  purposes, 
asparagus,  lettuce,  strawberries,  etc.  Corn  is  being  revived  as 
a  profitable  crop,  and  oats  are  more  generally  grown  for  feed- 
ing whole  and  for  ripening  and  threshing.  Alfalfa  may  soon 
be  a  leading  New  England  crop.  Hay  is  being  more  carefully 
grown,  the  average  crop  having  been  in  many  instances  doubled 
or  quadrupled.  Maine-grown  sweet  corn  commands  a  higher 
price  than  corn  grown  anywhere  else  in  the  United  States. 
Poultry  farming  is  one  of  the  highly  specialized  and  success- 
ful industries.  The  home  markets  greedily  appropriate  all  that 
can  be  produced  at  the  highest  prices  to  be  found  anywhere, 
and,  like  Oliver  Twist,  plead  for  more.  New  England  is  pre- 
eminently adapted  to  apple  production.  Soils,  elevation,  cli- 
mate, etc.,  are  exactly  what  the  apple  demands,  abundant 
proof  of  which  are  the  thousands  of  apple  trees  in  good  health 
on  the  many  hillsides,  some  of  them  being  50  to  100  years  old. 
Fertilization,  cultivation,  and  spraying  will  give  a  New  Eng- 
land fruit  practically  as  near  to  perfection  as  can  be  obtained 
in  the  world.  Markets  are,  figuratively,  in  the  New  England 
fruit  growers'  front  yards.  Within  the  past  two  years  there 
is  abundant  evidence  that  these  possibilities  are  beginning  to 
make  an  impression;  the  New  England  apple  industry  has 
made  greater  progress  within  that  time  than  during  any 

[  129  ] 


New  England 

decade  preceding.  Peaches  are  proving  very  profitable  where 
conditions  are  right,  though  requiring  more  skill  and  care 
than  other  crops.  The  ability  of  the  soil  to  produce  the  best 
of  yields  of  highest  quality  fruit,  and  the  dense  population  of 
New  England  affording  a  quick  market,  provide  extra  induce- 
ments for  growers  of  small  fruits.  Raspberries,  blackberries, 
strawberries,  grapes,  currants,  gooseberries,  cranberries,  dew- 
berries, and  huckleberries  are  produced  at  their  best  in  New 
England.  Cherries,  plums,  and  pears  always  succeed  where 
given  a  square  deal.  Adjacent  to  a  few  of  the  large  towns 
where  conditions  are  particularly  favorable,  roses  are  being 
largely  grown  for  market,  mostly  under  glass.  In  limited  areas 
in  Rhode  Island  and  eastern  Massachusetts  some  farmers 
make  a  specialty  of  growing  seeds  for  seedsmen. 

Among  the  interesting  and  profitable  crops  measuring  up 
to  the  dignity  of  a  specialty  in  a  dozen  states,  onions  command 
the  attention  of  many  farmers.  This  crop  is  one  which  requires 
peculiar  treatment  under  particular  environment  in  the  way 
of  soil  and  cultivation.  While  enormous  quantities  of  onions 
are  grown  in  the  Southwest  and  on  the  Pacific  coast,  the  main 
or  commercial  crop  is  found  in  a  few  states  north  of  the  Ohio 
river  and  east  of  the  Mississippi.  Leaders  in  acreage  and  out- 
put are  Massachusetts,  Connecticut,  New  York,  Ohio,  and  In- 
diana. Besides  these  states  many  onions  are  grown  in  the 
Middle  West,  but  they  do  not  cut  much  figure  in  the  autumn 
and  winter  commercial  markets.  In  New  England  there  are 
devoted  to  onions  about  2500  acres  which  annually  produce 
700,000  to  1,000,000  bushels.  Intensive  methods  are  used. 
Production  varies  from  300  to  1000  bushels,  or  even  more,  and 
the  average  price  of  45  to  50  cents  a  bushel  means  that  the 
land  is  capable  of  earning  $240  to  $500  per  acre.  The  1910 
crop  in  Massachusetts  yielded  three-quarters  of  a  million 
bushels. 

One  of  the  special  money  crops  that  bring  sure  returns  is 
asparagus.  This  is  a  crop  which  can  be  produced  successfully 
on  sandy  land.  The  sub-experiment  station  farm  at  Concord, 
Mass.,  has  proved  this.  Light,  sandy  soil  grown  up  to  scraggy 
brush  was  cleared,  buckwheat  sown  and  plowed  under.  This 

[  130] 


New  England  Agriculture 

provided  humus,  and  with  thorough  cultivation  and  judicious 
use  of  chemical  fertilizers  astonishing  growths  of  asparagus 
were  forthcoming.  Eastern  Massachusetts  is  a  great  center  for 
asparagus,  notably  in  the  vicinity  of  Concord  and  Lexington, 
20  miles  outside  of  Boston.  Cash  returns  are  anywhere  from 
$300  to  $500  an  acre,  and  it  is  not  overly  expensive  to  pro- 
duce. Once  a  plantation  is  started  it  is  good  for  a  decade  or 
more.  Wilfred  Wheeler,  Concord,  Mass.,  has  30  acres  under 
asparagus  and  his  returns  are  $300  to  the  acre.  C.  W.  Pres- 
cott  of  the  same  town,  and  president  of  the  Asparagus 
Growers  association,  has  25  acres  from  which,  in  1910,  he  re- 
ceived $5000. 

CEREALS  IN  NEW  ENGLAND 

The  belief  is  very  general  throughout  New  England  that 
much  more  might  profitably  be  done,  and  that  much  more  will 
be  done,  in  growing  corn.  This  in  fact  was  a  chief  reason  for 
the  New  England  Corn  Show  held  at  Worcester  in  November, 
1910.  To  those  who  attended  this  show  the  exhibits  were  eye 
openers  and  highly  encouraging.  To  others,  it  will  be  worth 
while  to  glance  briefly  at  the  facts  of  corn  production,  both  in 
and  out  of  New  England.  Reference  is  here  made  to  corn 
grown  to  full  maturity,  ripening  in  the  ear  and  husked  from 
the  shock. 

New  England  can  grow  more  bushels  of  field  corn  to  the 
acre  than  distinctively  corn  states  of  the  West ;  not  only  can, 
but  does.  So  good  an  authority  as  Uncle  Sam,  who  keeps  tab 
on  crop  production,  has  some  interesting  records.  The  United 
States  Department  of  Agriculture,  as  noted  in  the  accompany- 
ing table,  shows  that  the  highest  rate  of  yield  in  the  corn  crop 
of  1909  was  in  New  England.  The  three  northern  states,  for 
example,  averaged  35  to  38  bushels  to  the  acre.  Massachusetts 
made  an  equally  enviable  record,  while  Connecticut  showed 
41  bushels,  exceeding  every  other  state  in  the  Union.  Iowa,  for 
example,  averaged  only  311/2  bushels,  Nebraska,  scant  25 
bushels,  Kansas,  a  shade  less  than  20  bushels ;  while  the  aver- 
age for  all  of  the  United  States  was  only  25^/2  bushels.  The 

[  131  ] 


New  England 


figures  covering  a  10-year  average  are  equally  impressive, 
showing  that  for  a  long  period  of  time  the  New  England  states 
have  maintained  the  supremacy  in  corn  growing. 

In  New  England,  corn  is  the  leading  cereal,  although  wheat, 
oats,  barley,  and  rye  are  actualities.  The  time  was  when  the 
East  took  no  back  seat  in  total  corn  production,  but  with  the 
opening  of  the  boundless  areas  in  the  West  and  Middle  West, 
and  improved  transportation,  it  was  possible  to  raise  corn 

CORN  YIELD  PER  ACRE  IN  BUSHELS  AND  FARM  PRICE 

Farm  price 
Dec.  1,  1909 

80c. 

76c. 

73c. 

81c. 

75c. 

97c. 

74c. 

56c. 

61c. 

49c. 

54c. 

50c. 

59.6c. 

there  in  an  extensive  way  on  the  virgin  soils,  and  ship  to  east- 
ern markets  for  less  than  New  England  farmers  could  raise 
the  product.  Then  it  was  that  the  East  began  to  produce  less 
corn,  and  continued  so  to  do  for  many  years.  Within  the  past 
half-dozen  years  however  prices  have  advanced  so  materially 
that  the  eastern  farmer  sees  the  necessity  of  again  producing 
more  of  his  own  corn,  inasmuch  as  the  western  product  is  find- 
ing other  outlets,  not  the  least  of  which  is  the  feeding  of  stock 
in  the  states  where  the  corn  is  produced. 

That  there  is  a  great  corn-growing  revival  in  New  England 
is  well  shown  by  the  big  New  England  exposition  referred  to 
above.  Displays  were  there  which  vied  with  the  great  states  of 
the  West  at  the  national  show.  Each  of  the  six  New  England 
states  took  interest  in  this  exposition,  and  better  than  $5000 
was  paid  out  to  growers.  Daily  lectures  and  demonstrations 
were  provided,  and  the  whole  affair  conducted  on  a  broad  edu- 

[  132  ] 


10  year  average 

production 

Crop  1909 

1896-1905 

Maine 

35.1 

38.0 

New  Hampshire 

34.0 

35.1 

Vermont 

35.1 

37.0 

Massachusetts 

35.9 

38.0 

Connecticut 

35.8 

41.0 

Rhode  Island 

31.2 

33.2 

New  York 

30.3 

36.0 

Ohio 

34.8 

39.5 

Michigan 

32.2 

35.4 

Iowa 

32.4 

31.5 

Kansas 

22.0 

19.9 

Nebraska 

28.8 

24.8 

United  States 

25.2 

25.5 

New  England  Agriculture 

cational  basis  which  is  sure  to  be  felt  for  years  to  come  by 
eastern  agriculture. 

As  showing  what  New  England  can  do  in  the  way  of  corn, 
it  is  remembered  that  it  was  a  Connecticut  youth,  N.  H.  Brewer, 
who  won  the  highest  prize  at  the  national  corn  show  in  1908, 
with  a  record  of  ISS1/^  bushels  to  the  acre.  The  next  year  he 
raised  40  acres  and  produced  over  100  bushels  to  the  acre.  Ex- 
cellent as  is  this  record,  phenomenal  as  it  seems,  in  the  light 
of  past  records,  it  was  undoubtedly  surpassed  by  that  of 
Perley  P.  Davis  of  Granby,  Mass.,  won  at  the  New  England 
corn  show,  at  Worcester,  in  November,  1910.  As  the  two  yields 
appear  not  to  have  been  judged  by  the  same  method  it  is  not 
possible  exactly  to  compare  them.  The  Davis  yield  was  re- 
duced to  the  standard  of  12  percent  moisture,  and  conse- 
quently shrunk  from  127  bushels  containing  43  percent  of 
water  and  cob  to  103.23  bushels  of  crib-dry  corn  with  12  per- 
cent moisture,  containing  4934  pounds  of  actual  food  —  that 
is,  protein,  fat,  sugar,  etc.  To  suggest  the  importance  of  this 
performance  in  corn-growing  we  can  do  no  better  than  quote 
from  a  review  of  the  corn  show  made  by  a  leading  expert 
agriculturist,  not,  by  the  way,  a  New  Englander: 

"  Mr.  Davis,  the  young  man  who  won  the  grand  prize  for 
growing  over  103  bushels  of  crib-dry  shelled  corn  on  an  acre, 
has  done  more  of  real  service  to  Massachusetts  than  any  gov- 
ernor of  that  Commonwealth  who  has  held  office  since  the  Civil 
War.  Mr.  Davis  has  shown  how  Massachusetts  can  provide 
more  of  her  own  bread,  how  waste  land  can  be  made  produc- 
tive, how  farms  can  be  doubled  in  value,  and  how  in  conse- 
quence a  revised  edition  of  the  old-time  farm  life  can  be  made 
possible.  Such  a  man  on  his  farm  makes  history  in  a  way  that 
no  governor  can  match  by  his  work  in  the  State  House.  The 
crop  analyzed  11.73  percent  protein,  which  meant  597  pounds 
of  protein  to  the  acre.  This  is  more  than  you  can  grow  in  over 
four  tons  of  good  clover  hay,  and  in  addition  you  have  the 
dry  fodder,  which  is  also  superior  in  the  flint  varieties.  All 
these  things  increase  the  confidence  generally  expressed  at  this 
corn  show,  that  New  England  is  to  come  nearer  and  nearer  to 
feeding  her  own  people.  Clover,  alfalfa,  soy  beans,  and  vetch 

[  133  ] 


PRIZE  APPLES  AT  THE  BOSTON  SHOW  IN   1909 


New  England  Agriculture 

can  all  be  grown  in  New  England,  and  now  that  corn  growing 
is  to  be  made  popular,  the  amount  of  home-made  bread,  meat, 
and  eggs  will  be  largely  increased.  Let  us  look  at  the  money 
side  of  it.  This  crib-dry  corn  will  sell  for  feeding  for  $1.10 
per  bushel.  That  means  $113.55  for  the  grain  alone  —  not  for 
seed,  but  in  competition  with  grain  which  made  only  40  bushels 
per  acre.  The  fodder  will  sell  for  at  least  $15  more.  Now, 
where  is  the  acre  of  corn  in  Iowa,  Illinois,  or  other  corn-grow- 
ing states  that  will  give  $130  income?  If  you  say  that  the 
acre  of  western  corn  docs  not  need  the  ton  of  fertilizer  and  the 
hand  work  of  culture,  we  can  say  leave  out  the  cost  and  still 
the  acre  of  Massachusetts  corn  will  out-profit  the  western  acre 
by  more  than  50  percent.  That  is  because  these  flint  varieties 
are  heavier  yielders,  because  the  selling  price  of  corn  is 
greater,  and  because  the  fodder  has  a  good  selling  value.  There 
is  no  disputing  the  fact  that  Mr.  Davis's  record  is  genuine. 
Now  let  any  western  farmer  who  has  ever  won  such  a  prize 
come  forward  and  show  what  his  acre's  product  actually  sold 
for!  What  I  am  getting  at  is  the  fact  that  this  corn  exhibi- 
tion proves  what  we  have  claimed  for  years,  that  $50  land  in 
the  East  can  be  made  to  earn  a  greater  profit  than  $150 
western  land  —  at  growing  corn." 

Wheat,  both  winter  and  spring,  grows  luxuriantly  through- 
out all  New  England.  It  is  simply  a  question  of  whether  there 
are  not  other  crops  from  which  the  farmer  can  secure  more 
money.  Aroostook  county,  Me.,  produces  many  thousands 
bushels  of  wheat  annually,  also  oats.  There,  a  yield  of  30  to 
40  bushels  of  wheat  to  the  acre  is  the  average.  One  year  with 
another,  this  brings  in  the  vicinity  of  $1.25  per  bushel.  A 
yield  of  oats  below  50  bushels  is  counted  poor  in  New  Eng- 
land. Fields  of  40,  50,  and  60  acres  in  extent  in  either  wheat 
or  oats  are  common  in  northern  Maine,  and  occasionally  seen 
in  Massachusetts  and  other  eastern  states.  J.  L.  Smith  of 
Hawley,  Mass.,  in  1909,  had  a  single  field  of  65  acres  oats, 
which  thrashed  50  bushels  to  the  acre  for  the  entire  area.  In 
1910  he  had  a  field  of  30  acres  barley.  A  Lenox,  Mass., 
farmer,  George  W.  Ferguson,  harvested,  in  1910,  417  bushels 
winter  wheat  from  10.7  acres  of  land,  and  sold  the  wheat  in 

[  135  1 


New  England 

the  Pittsfield  market,  a  short  distance  away,  for  $2.50  a 
bushel,  for  seed  purposes.  His  and  other  successful  cereal  ex- 
pert methods  in  New  England  are  not  radically  different 
from  those  common  in  the  grain  belt.  Thorough  tillage  with 
plenty  of  humus,  provided  by  cover  crops  plowed  under,  is 
the  meat  in  the  cocoanut  which  brings  such  fine  returns.  Mr. 
Ferguson  sold  his  wheat  straw  for  $150,  which  brought  a 
gross  return  of  nearly  $1200  in  a  single  season  from  his  ten- 
acre  wheat  field.  Such  returns  in  the  grain  belt  would  cause  a 
stampede,  but  in  New  England  it  attracts  no  particular 
notice. 

MARKET  GARDENING 

The  twelfth  census  reported  a  production  of  $1,421,976 
worth  of  vegetable  products  from  Middlesex  county  in  the 
year  1899.  There  has,  without  doubt,  been  a  large  increase 
in  that  production  since  that  time.  In  addition,  Middlesex 
county  showed  the  greatest  per  acre  production  of  any  county 

WEATHER   BUREAU 

AVERAGE  RAINFALL  IN  INCHES  AND  HUNDHEDTHS,  1909 
States  April     May    June    July     August    September     Annual 


Maine 

3.94 

2.73 

2.45 

2.85 

2.45 

7.36 

45.17 

New  Hampshire 

3.28 

2.49 

2.88 

2.24 

2.85 

4.07 

35.60 

Vermont 

2.90 

4.49 

3.16 

2.54 

3.17 

4.20 

35.86 

Massachusetts 

4.83 

2.79 

2.55 

1.92 

3.11 

4.55 

41.43 

Rhode  Island 

6.34 

3.41 

1.88 

0.95 

2.23 

3.95 

41.33 

Connecticut 

6.56 

2.75 

2.44 

1.89 

3.37 

4.35 

43.37 

New  York 

3.67 

3.69 

2.86 

2.88 

3.07 

2.96 

36.03 

Pennsylvania 

5.39 

2.90 

4.48 

2.14 

2.31 

2.27 

37.38 

Ohio 

4.13 

4.72 

5.86 

3.76 

3.56 

1.78 

42.65 

I'linois 

6.24 

4.01 

4.15 

4.52 

2.22 

3.69 

43.11 

Kansas 

1.43 

3.86 

5.45 

5.86 

1.25 

3.23 

32.71 

North  Dakota 

0.81 

4.29 

3.21 

2.89 

2.25 

0.86 

17.73 

New  Mexico 

0.29 

0.62 

0.91 

2.14 

3.08 

1.76 

12.83 

in  the  United  States,  and  ranked  second  in  valuation  of  its 
vegetable  crops  to  only  one,  that  being  Queens  county,  N.  Y., 
which  has  an  area  1/3  larger  than  Middlesex  and  a  valuation 
of  vegetable  products  tjr  greater. 

As  a  state  Massachusetts  ranks  sixth  in  the  Union,  listed 
according  to  the  valuation  of  her  vegetable  products.  This 

[  136  ] 


New  England  Agriculture 

ranking  of  Massachusetts,  and  particularly  of  Middlesex 
county,  is  very  largely  due  to  the  high  state  of  development 
to  which  vegetable  growing  under  glass  has  been  developed. 
Nowhere  in  the  world  is  head  lettuce  produced  so  system- 
atically and  successfully  in  the  glass  house  as  in  Middlesex 
county.  There  the  business  originated  and  there  it  has  largely 
developed.  The  towns  of  Arlington  and  Belmont  are  dotted 
with  the  glass  houses  of  winter  vegetable  growers.  The  chief 
products  of  these  houses  are  lettuce  and  cucumbers,  and  these 
products  find  their  markets  throughout  New  England  and 
New  York  state.  Other  products  are  grown,  mainly  tomatoes, 
radishes,  parsley,  mint,  and  cress,  but  these  are  entirely  con- 
sumed in  the  home  market  and  are  of  minor  importance. 

The  extremely  rapid  growth  of  the  glass-house  vegetable 
industry  which  took  place  during  the  years  from  1895  to  1905 
has  ceased.  Competition  from  the  southern  truck  grower  has 
been  the  cause.  The  condition  at  present  is  one  of  healthy  set- 
tling down  to  business,  with  less  encouragement  to  increase 
the  capital  investment  than  ever  before.  Whether  the  truck 
grower  of  the  South  Atlantic  states  will  be  able  to  so  success- 
fully grow  and  land  his  products  in  our  markets  is  an  un- 
solved problem.  The  uncertainty  of  nature's  distribution  of 
cold  and  wet  will  probably  enable  the  New  England  glass- 
house gardener  to  not  only  successfully  compete  with  the 
southerner,  but  to  gradually  increase  his  business,  as  he  may 
improve  his  products  and  his  method  of  distribution,  and  as 
his  products  prove  their  high  quality. 

The  outdoor  gardening  of  Massachusetts,  Rhode  Island, 
and  Connecticut  is  equally  well  developed.  The  three  northern 
states  do  not  excel  in  this  respect,  largely  because  of  their 
lack  of  large  cities  and  dense  centers  of  population. 

The  climatic  conditions  of  New  England  are  excellent  for 
the  production  of  high  quality  vegetable  products.  The  soils 
are  so  varied  that  in  nearly  every  locality  may  be  found  that 
sort  particularly  suited  to  the  production  of  small  fruits  and 
vegetables.  The  size  of  market  gardens  is  typically  small. 
Those  of  New  England  vary  from  five  to  150  acres.  It  is  not 
unusual  for  the  product  to  equal  a  value  of  $1000  per  acre, 

[  137  ] 


New  England 

and  the  average  product  would  probably  range  somewhere 
between  $400  and  $800.  The  business  demands  men  of  prac- 
tical ability,  some  capital,  in  cash  or  credit,  a  natural  liking 
for  the  business,  willingness  to  work  hard  and  to  stick  to  it. 
To  a  person  with  these  qualifications  market  gardening  is  a 
good  business  proposition,  and  New  England  a  splendid  place 
in  which  to  locate. 

The  market  for  good  garden  produce  is  not  only  poorly 
and  inadequately  supplied,  but  the  consumption  of  vegetable 
products  is  much  more  limited  than  it  would  be  were  people 
either  aware  of  the  full  virtue  of  vegetable  products  as  food 
or  able  to  purchase  them  when  wanted.  Perhaps  the  greatest 
immediate  need  is  an  improvement  in  methods  of  distribution. 
An  educational  campaign  among  those  that  sell  vegetables, 
which  will  show  the  profit  in  proper  handling  and  protection, 
as  well  as  one  among  the  general  public,  to  indicate  the  food 
value  and  health-giving  qualities  of  various  garden  products, 
would  do  as  much  toward  developing  the  industry  as  any  one 
thing. 

There  are  many  small  cities  and  large  towns  in  New  Eng- 
land very  inadequately  supplied  with  vegetables  of  local  pro- 
duction. It  is  necessary  for  them  to  depend  upon  a  supply  of 
perishable  products  shipped  from  a  distance,  passed  through 
the  hands  of  two  or  more  middlemen,  and  handled  by  the 
transportation  company  before  the  consumer  has  a  chance  at 
the  product.  The  nature  of  the  product  is  such  that  its  qual- 
ity is  thus  damaged,  its  good  appearance  lost,  and  its  sale 
limited.  In  each  of  these  localities  is  an  opportunity  to  build 
up  a  business  which  will  provide  a  fair  income  and  a  pleasant 
occupation.  There  are  shipped  into  Boston  each  season  many 
carloads  of  cauliflower,  celery,  spinach,  and  tomatoes,  much 
of  which  might  well  be  grown  in  the  market  gardens  of  New 
England. 

There  are  efficient  market-gardeners  associations  in  Boston 
and  Worcester,  the  former  having  200  members.  These  asso- 
ciations have  been  of  great  benefit  to  the  business  and  to  the 
individual  gardeners. 

f  138  1 


New  England  Agriculture 

FRUIT  IN  NEW  ENGLAND 

Apples  have  always  been  a  New  England  staple  crop,  but 
it  is  only  within  the  past  few  years  that  apple  raising  has  be- 
come recognized  as  a  possible  source  of  very  great  additional 
wealth.  There  are  now  many  large  commercial  orchards  grow- 
ing, and  within  the  next  five  to  eight  years  New  England  ap- 
ples will  have  recovered  the  eastern  and  export  markets.  Prof. 
F.  C.  Sears,  of  Massachusetts  Agricultural  College,  says,  in 
summing  up  the  advantages  of  New  England  as  an  apple 
region : 

"  In  the  first  place,  land  values  are  very  much  in  favor  of 
New  England.  Men  have  been  '  going  west  to  grow  up  with  the 
country  '  for  so  long  that  prices  for  land  in  any  of  the  good 
fruit  sections  are  abnormally  high,  while  they  are  correspond- 
ingly low  here  in  the  East.  One  hears  constantly  of  the  won- 
derful prices  which  are  paid  out  there  for  raw  lands,  or  for 
land  just  set  to  orchard,  while  $1000,  $2000  and  even  $5000 
per  acre  have  been  refused  for  bearing  orchards.  Here  in  New 
England,  on  the  contrary,  splendid  orchard  land  can  be 
bought  for  $5,  $10  to  $50  per  acre.  No  country  in  the  world 
abounds  more  in  ideal  orchard  sites  than  New  England.  Next 
to  the  question  of  land,  and  more  important  in  some  ways,  I 
should  place  the  matter  of  the  quality  of  New  England-grown 
fruit.  I  believe  that  there  is  no  other  section  where  the  flavor 
and  aroma  and  juiciness  and  sweetness,  and,  in  fact,  all  those 
factors  on  which  we  base  our  estimate  of  the  quality  of  an 
apple,  are  more  highly  developed  than  right  here.  A  third 
factor  which  certainly  ought  to  stand  in  favor  of  the  New 
England  orchardist  is  the  matter  of  markets.  If  he  is  compet- 
ing on  anything  like  equal  terms  with  his  western  competitors 
in  other  respects,  it  would  certainly  seem  that  the  fact  that 
he  is  right  in  the  midst  of  the  best  markets  in  the  world,  while 
his  competitors  are  three  thousand  miles  away  from  them, 
ought  to  give  him  the  difference  in  the  cost  of  freight  and 
express  rates  as  a  margin  of  profit,  or  a  handicap  on  his 
competitors." 

Apple  culture  is  not  necessarily  a  difficult  thing.  An  or- 

f  139  1 


New  England 

chard  once  located,  it  is  largely  a  question  of  giving  proper 
fertilizing,  cultivation,  and  looking  out  for  insect  and  fungous 
pests.  Principles  for  these  various  operations  are  pretty  well 
agreed  upon  by  all  expert  growers,  and  a  conscientious  man, 
who  is  not  afraid  to  work,  cannot  go  far  wrong  if  he  backs  up 
his  good  judgment  with  any  one  of  the  detailed  sets  of  instruc- 
tion on  apple  culture  available.  The  hills,  of  which  New  Eng- 
land has  so  many,  are  preferred  as  sites,  thus  providing  good 
water  drainage  and,  what  is  equally  essential,  air  drainage.  A 
gravelly  loam  soil  is  ideal,  although  many  variations  produce 
satisfactory  results.  The  careful  grower  will  avoid  too  many 
varieties,  perhaps  banking  on  no  more  than  four  or  five  to 
cover  different  seasons.  Yellow  Transparent,  Red  Astrachan, 
William's,  Oldenburg,  Early  Gravenstein,  Wealthy,  Fall 
Pippin,  Mclntosh,  Hubbardston,  Westfield,  Blue  Pearmain, 
Palmer  Greening,  Sutton,  Baldwin,  Spy,  Roxbury,  and  Rhode 
Island  Greening  are  typical  of  the  summer,  fall,  early  winter, 
and  late  winter  sorts  which  are  in  strong  favor  in  New  Eng- 
land markets.  This  does  not  imply  that  other  varieties  cannot 
be  produced  successfully,  and  it  is  perhaps  safe  to  say  that 
with  the  varying  sites  and  soils  in  New  England  there  is  not  a 
standard  variety  which  cannot  be  produced  in  its  perfection. 
Most  growers  are  setting  permanent  trees  40  feet  distant 
each  way,  and  then  interplanting  either  with  early  bearing 
sorts  like  Wealthy,  Bismarck,  or  Wagener  apples,  and  in  other 
cases  using  peach  or  plum  trees  as  fillers.  The  idea  is  that  the 
slower  growing  sorts  that  do  not  come  into  full  bearing  for 
12  to  15  years  will  not  need  so  much  room  at  the  start.  Early 
bearing  apples  and  the  other  fruits  will  produce  five  to  eight 
paying  crops  before  the  standard  apples  need  the  room. 

If  a  man  wishes  to  still  further  intensify,  as  some  are 
doing,  currants,  gooseberries,  strawberries,  and  raspberries 
are  raised  between  the  rows  of  trees  for  the  first  two  or  three 
years.  Vegetable  crops,  such  as  potatoes,  corn,  and  squash,  are 
available.  These  intercrops  actually  pay  for  the  early  care  of 
the  orchard. 

Those  who  have  cultivated,  fertilized,  and  sprayed  fruit 
trees  show  some  remarkable  returns.  An  early  spray  of  lime- 

f  140  1 


New  England  Agriculture 

sulphur  solution  will  kill  the  various  scales  like  San  Jose  and 
have  distinct  fungicidal  effect  as  well.  In  peaches  it  will  kill 
the  San  Jose  scale  and  leaf  curl,  the  two  greatest  enemies. 
Later,  two  or  three  sprayings  with  bordeaux  mixture,  or  one 
of  the  newer  sulphur  compounds,  to  which  some  poison  like 
arsenate  of  lead  has  been  added,  will  complete  the  j  ob  against 
rot,  coddling  moths,  etc.  How  these  enemies  are  regarded  by 
fruit  growers  with  initiative  is  shown  by  the  remark  of  J.  H. 
Hale  at  a  horticultural  meeting  when  growers  were  bewailing 
the  ravages  of  the  San  Jose  scale :  "  Thunder !  What 's  the 
matter  with  you  folks?  The  San  Jose  scale  is  a  blessing  to 
New  England  and  all  other  fruit  growers.  It  forces  growers  to 
spray;  just  the  thing  they  ought  to  have  done  before." 

As  showing  the  remarkable  returns  that  follow  intelligent 
culture  of  the  apple,  we  cite:  C.  T.  Holmes  of  Charlotte,  Vt., 
has  an  apple  orchard  of  100  acres.  In  1909  he  gathered 
6000  barrels,  mostly  Greenings.  These  brought  better  than 
$20,000.  Mr.  Holmes  has  refused  $50,000  for  his  farm.  T.  K. 
Winsor  of  Chepachet,  R.  I.,  bought  his  father's  farm  several 
years  ago,  giving  a  mortgage.  The  40-acre  apple  orchard  was 
renovated,  sprayed,  fertilized,  and  the  returns  soon  paid  for 
the  farm.  Now  in  a  good  year  2000  barrels  go  to  Providence 
cold  storage,  to  come  out  at  opportune  times  at  $6  to  $8  a 
barrel.  F.  H.  Morse  of  Waterford,  Me.,  bought  a  semi-aban- 
doned farm  for  $650.  A  few  years  later  he  took  $2000  worth 
of  apples  from  the  place  in  a  single  year.  Most  of  these  trees 
were  growing  wild  in  the  pastures.  Mr.  Morse  pruned  and 
grafted  them,  and  later  sprayed.  Three  years  after  grafting  a 
tree  he  has  picked  three  barrels  of  fine  fruit,  and  five  years 
after  grafting,  five  barrels.  This  fruit  sold  at  $5  a  barrel.  One 
old  wild  tree,  20  feet  in  circumference  and  probably  100  years 
old,  was  redeemed,  and  in  1910  gave  better  than  ten  barrels 
apples.  From  a  small  orchard  of  553  trees,  C.  E.  Hardy  of 
Hollis,  N.  H.,  sold,  in  1907,  $2400  worth  of  apples,  in  1908, 
$2500,  in  1909,  $3100;  a  total  of  $8000  in  three  years.  Mr. 
Hardy  says  that  before  his  orchard  was  pruned  and  sprayed 
and  fertilized  the  sales  amounted  to  little. 

The  old  notion  was  that  the  South,  New  Jersey  and  Dela- 

[  141  ] 


New  England  Agriculture 

ware,  and  Michigan  had  the  inside  track  on  peach  production. 
Later  developments  have  proved  that  New  England  can  equal, 
if  not  excel,  those  localities.  In  recent  years  the  restricted  sec- 
tions in  Connecticut  have  been  gradually  added  to,  and  many 
farmers  have  learned  that  large  areas  are  adapted  to  peaches. 
The  teachings  and  living  example  provided  by  J.  H.  Hale,  the 
leader  in  peach  raising  in  America,  followed  by  men  of  the 
Lyman,  Barnes,  and  Root  type,  blazed  the  way  for  others  to 
follow.  Even  the  cold  bleak  hills  of  Litchfield  county  are  now 
producing  fine  crops  of  peaches.  The  Wilbraham  mountains  in 
Massachusetts  are  coming  to  the  front  as  the  home  of  satisfy- 
ing peaches  —  for  both  grower  and  consumer.  Both  eastern 
and  western  sections  of  the  Bay  State  are  producing  peaches 
successfully.  Even  far-north  New  Hampshire  growers  are 
raising  the  crop. 

The  successful  culture  of  the  peach  is  not  so  easily  approxi- 
mated as  with  the  apple.  One  must  be  more  careful  as  to  site, 
particularly  as  to  good  air  and  drainage.  The  principles  of 
cultivation  and  fertilization  must  be  attended  to  more  strictly 
than  with  the  hardier  fruit.  Peaches  succeed  on  much  lighter 
soil  than  apples,  and  a  soil  of  a  limestone  nature  appears  to 
be  ideal.  However  rocky  and  full  of  limestone  ledges  a  hill 
may  be,  it  is  not  impossible  to  grow  peaches  on  it,  provided 
other  conditions  are  right. 

Peach  growers  are  learning  that  the  crop  can  be  controlled 
largely  by  the  kind,  time,  and  amount  of  fertilization  and 
cultivation.  C.  E.  Lyman  of  Connecticut  matured  his  Elberta 
peaches  in  1910  fully  ten  days  ahead  of  the  normal  season  by 
pushing  them  with  nitrate  of  potash.  He  provides  or  with- 
holds nitrogen,  potash,  or  phosphoric  acid,  just  as  the  tree 
and  the  season  seem  to  demand.  Mr.  Lyman,  in  1900,  mar- 
keted around  100,000  baskets  of  peaches.  He  has  400  acres 
in  the  crop,  and  is  setting  more  every  year.  Some  of  the  trees 
set  fifteen  years  ago  are  still  bearing  and  have  paid  for  them- 
selves many  times  over. 

Peaches  come  in  bearing  three  years  after  planting,  and  the 
fourth  year  usually  provides  a  fine  crop.  Even  if  a  tree  lives 
to  be  only  eight  or  nine  years  old,  it  should  pay  for  itself 

[  143  ] 


New  England 

many  times  over.  D.  H.  Eaton  of  Wilbraham,  Mass.,  har- 
vested in  1909  from  one  eight-year-old  tree  twenty-two 
baskets.  These  brought  seventy-five  cents  per  basket.  From 
his  orchard  he  had  3200  baskets  which  netted  $2500 ;  375  of 
the  trees  were  only  three-year-olds,  the  remaining  600  being 
eight  years  old.  J.  H.  Hale  has  taken  rough  land  which  cost 
him  $100  to  $400  an  acre  to  redeem  and  made  money  on  it. 
There  are  thousands  of  acres  of  land  in  Connecticut  and 
Massachusetts  suitable  for  peaches,  which  would  not  cost 
more  than  $40  an  acre  to  reclaim. 

GRAPES,  SMALL  FRUITS  AND  BERRIES 

Grapes  are  a  sure  crop  in  New  England  if  proper  varieties 
are  selected.  It  has  been  thought  that  the  climate  in  New 
England  is  too  severe  for  grape-culture,  and  the  coming  of 
frost  in  the  fall  too  irregular.  These  handicaps  are  not  of  the 
same  importance  they  once  were,  owing  to  a  better  under- 
standing of  grape  culture  and  the  development  of  more  suit- 
able varieties.  The  famed  Concord  grape  originated  in  New 
England,  in  the  Massachusetts  town  of  the  same  name,  and 
the  original  vine  is  still  in  bearing.  It  is  of  interest  to  note 
here  that  the  Baldwin  apple  was  originated  near  the  birth- 
place of  the  Concord  grape.  There  are  perhaps  no  phenome- 
nal crops  of  New  England  grapes  to  report,  though  very 
creditable  crops  are  raised  in  many  localities.  In  Norwood, 
Mass,,  there  is  a  very  interesting  and  valuable  grape  experi- 
ment station,  if  it  may  be  so  called,  where  Mr.  N.  B.  White 
is  originating  varieties  of  grapes  particularly  adapted  for 
New  England  culture.  He  has  cross-bred,  and  bred  from  seed, 
several  varieties  that  have  been  fruited  several  years  and 
seem  to  answer  all  the  requirements  imposed  by  our  rigorous 
climate  and  our  uncertain  frost-date,  and  he  is  firmly  con- 
vinced that  grapes  may  be  raised  in  New  England  with  the 
same  measure  of  success  as  attends  the  business  in  other  sec- 
tions, the  prime  requisite  being  that  the  grapes  shall  have 
been  bred  in  New  England  from  the  seed,  and  crossed  with 
varieties  that  will  give  quality  for  the  rugged  stem  from  New 

[  144  1 


New  England  Agriculture 

England  soil.  He  has  one  grape  that  is  the  result  of  crossing, 
or  breeding  in,  sixteen  varieties.  It  is  a  great  bearer,  and  the 
grapes  are  rich  and  of  good  flavor.  Another  of  his  originat- 
ing is  a  very  large  and  prolific  grape  on  a  perfectly  hardy 
vine,  especially  adapted  for  the  making  of  jelly. 

The  culture  of  berries  and  small  fruits  does  not  vary  mate- 
rially from  that  prevailing  in  other  sections,  and  each  state 
agricultural  college  and  experiment  station  can  provide  bulle- 
tins and  directions  for  a  prospective  farmer  to  follow  for  best 
results.  Close  to  New  Haven,  Ct.,  is  one  noted  section,  and 
another  is  at  Concord,  Mass.  A  farmer  living  at  South  Han- 
cock, Me.,  E.  W.  Wooster,  has  netted  as  high  as  $1000  in  a 
single  season  from  a  trifle  over  one  acre  of  strawberries. 
A.  E.  Ross,  another  Maine  farmer  in  Berwick,  has  set  straw- 
berries in  rows  five  feet  apart  and  grown  cabbage  between 
the  rows.  The  two  crops  harvested  inside  of  15  months  re- 
turned him  over  $2000  an  acre.  A.  A.  Halladay  &  Sons  of 
Bellows  Falls,  Vt.,  harvested  5000  quarts  from  one-quarter 
acre  one  year,  which  were  sold  at  15  cents  straight.  This 
meant  $750,  or  at  the  rate  of  $3000  to  the  acre.  A.  B.  Howard 
&  Sons  of  Belchertown,  Mass.,  have  taken  as  much  as  $1000 
from  a  single  acre  of  strawberries.  Yields  of  6000  to-  10,000 
quarts  berries  to  the  acre  are  normally  reported.  Good  au- 
thorities say  it  is  possible  to  do  better  with  raspberries,  and 
still  others  say  they  would  rather  take  their  chances  with 
blackberries.  Cranberries  grow  only  in  restricted  sections, 
where  water  flowage  can  be  provided  to  assist  in  protecting 
the  crop.  Currants  and  gooseberries  have  distinct  possibili- 
ties, especially  where  a  farmer  is  starting  a  young  orchard. 
He  can  set  these  crops  between  the  rows  and  secure  a  return 
of  $300  to  $400  to  the  acre  annually.  An  example  of  a  farmer 
who  has  done  this  is  A.  A.  Eastman  of  Dexter,  Me.  From  2^/2 
acres  land,  which  is  first  set  to  plums  and  then  interplanted 
with  currants  and  gooseberries,  Mr.  Eastman  has  paid  for 
his  home,  educated  his  children,  and  has  money  in  the  bank. 
Wilfred  Wheeler,  Concord,  Mass.,  who  has  made  a  marked 
success  in  raising  pears,  strawberries,  and  currants,  says  he 
has  picked  as  high  as  14  quarts  of  the  latter  from  a  single 

[  145  ] 


New  England 

bush.  These  sell  at  8  to  10  cents  a  quart  in  the  Boston  market, 
20  miles  distant.  Gooseberries  are  even  more  profitable  with 
him,  returning  $400  to  the  acre.  Plums  grow  abundantly  in 
the  six  New  England  states.  C.  J.  Spaulding  of  North  Buck- 
field,  Me.,  Elmer  B.  Parker  of  Wilton,  N.  H.,  and  A.  A.  Halla- 
day  of  Bellows  Falls,  Vt.,  gather  annually  fine  crops  from 
those  northern  latitudes.  The  latter  has  been  raising  plums 
for  30  years  and  has  an  orchard  of  600  trees.  His  plums  sell 
at  $3  per  bushel,  and  he  picks  as  many  as  two  bushels  from 
a  single  tree.  These  are  set  close  together,  so  $400  an  acre  is 
not  an  exorbitant  figure  as  returns  from  a  good  plum  crop. 
Cherries  sell  at  $4  a  bushel,  year  after  year.  Men  who  are 
succeeding  in  producing  fine  crops  of  this  fruit  are  J.  T. 
Molumphy,  Berlin,  Ct.,  who  has  about  200  bushels  annually, 
and  A.  B.  Howard,  Belchertown,  Mass. 

LIVE   STOCK  AND  HAY 

In  the  matter  of  dairying,  New  England  is  at  the  fore- 
front. Its  gently  sloping  hills,  its  well  watered  valleys,  its 
delightful  atmosphere,  its  environment  conducive  to  the  grow- 
ing of  grasses  and  clover,  its  plentiful  crops  of  silage  corn 
and  rye  and  roots,  and  its  opening  vista  of  alfalfa  culture,  all 
lead  to  ease  of  milk  production.  In  the  matter  of  market  out- 
let comes  into  play  the  ever-increasing  and  urgent  demand 
from  the  populous  towns  and  cities,  and  at  prices  which  have 
recently  been  relatively  better  and  more  commensurate  with 
the  cost  of  production  affording  living  profits  than  ever  be- 
fore. The  business  in  whole  milk  is  enormous.  Boston  requires 
nearly  10,000,000  quarts  per  month.  In  that  city  the  whole- 
sale price  has  advanced  from  a  yearly  average  of  only  3.8 
cents  a  quart  a  decade  ago  to  better  than  5  cents.  The  de- 
mand for  whole  milk  in  all  cities  and  large  towns  is  so  great 
that  there  is  a  very  meager  supply  left  for  converting  into 
butter  and  cheese.  Splendid  cheese  is  made  in  Vermont,  com- 
manding good  prices,  and  in  recent  years  Connecticut  has 
been  developing  an  interesting  industry  in  soft  cheeses.  And 
as  for  creamery  butter,  this  is  truly  in  a  class  by  itself,  so 

[  146  ] 


New  England  Agriculture 

sharp  is  the  demand  for  every  pound  made.  Prices  of  good 
butter  run  from  28  to  38  cents  a  pound  the  year  around,  and 
butter  fat  sells  at  the  creameries  around  30  cents  per  pound. 
In  the  event  that  the  latter  or  cheese  factories  are  patronized, 
the  farmer  has  skim-milk  to  feed  his  growing  stock  on  the 
farm.  In  many  cases  farmers  live  near  small  towns,  villages, 

HAY  AND   POTATOES  IN  NEW  ENGLAND 

CROPS  AND  VALUES,  FARM  PRICE,  DECEMBER  1,  1909 


Hay 


Potatoes 


Farm 

Farm 

value 

value 

Acres 

Tons 

per  ton 

Acres 

Bushels 

per  bu. 

Maine                      1, 

400,000 

1,330,000 

$14.70 

130,000 

29,250,000 

47c. 

New  Hampshire 

040,000 

621,000 

17.90 

21,000 

2,730,000 

64c. 

Vermont 

879,000 

1,099,000 

14.70 

30,000 

4,650,000 

44c. 

Massachusetts 

585,000 

673,000 

18.90 

34,000 

4,250,000 

79c. 

Connecticut 

490,000 

564,000 

19.30 

36,000 

4,320,000 

83c. 

Rhode  Island 

62,000 

68,000 

18.60 

6,000 

750,000 

80c. 

New  York 

14.20 

50c. 

Ohio 

10.90 

56c. 

Iowa 

7.10 

55c. 

Nebraska 

6.00 

60c. 

Michigan 

11.40 

35c. 

Missouri 

8.30 

67c. 

United  States  (1909) 

10.62 

45.3c. 

and  cities,  where  they  peddle  their  own  milk,  receiving  7  to  9 
cents  a  quart.  Following  this  line  of  dairying,  W.  L.  Whipple 
of  Woonsocket,  R.  L,  has  taken  $20,000  net  from  the  soil 
within  a  few  years.  In  1909  he  received  5  cents  a  quart  for 
his  milk  delivered  at  a  nearby  point.  Those  who  wish  to  pro- 
vide an  extra  fancy  product  sell  it  at  12  and  15  cents  a  quart. 
Examples  of  the  latter  class  are  Charlotte  Wells  of  Ware- 
lands,  Mass. ;  George  H.  Ellis  of  Newton,  Mass. ;  and  Wilson 
H.  Lee  of  Orange,  Ct.  The  latter  started  in  a  small  way  and 
now  has  a  daily  output  of  800  to  900  quarts.  He  sells  his 
cream  at  $1  a  quart.  All  of  the  milk  sells  readily  at  15  cents 
a  quart.  With  the  farmer  raising  more  of  his  crops,  especially 
rye,  oats,  and  peas,  sowed  corn  and  millet  and  barley,  and 
perhaps  raising  a  little  extra  corn  and  oats  to  be  ground  for 
mixed  feed,  handsome  profits  are  in  sight. 

There  are  many  cases  where  farmers  have  a  special  butter 

[  147] 


New  England  Agriculture 

trade,  selling  their  product  to  families  at  35  to  40  cents  the 
year  around.  J.  W.  Alsop  of  Avon,  Ct.,  has  a  registered  herd 
of  Guernsey  cattle  and  sells  his  cream  at  50  cents  a  quart,  and 
butter  at  50  cents  a  pound  at  the  door.  G.  W.  Ferguson, 
Lenox,  Mass.,  makes  sweet  cream  butter  and  sells  it  for  $1  a 
pound.  That  a  young  man  can  go  in  debt  for  a  farm  and  pay 
for  it  with  dairying  as  a  specialty  is  shown  by  the  success  of 
A.  J.  Pierpont,  Jr.,  of  Waterbury,  Ct.  Ten  years  ago  he 
bought  a  farm,  giving  a  mortgage  for  $7000.  He  keeps  Hol- 
stcin  cows  and  sells  the  milk  at  4  cents  a  quart  at  the  door.  He 
has  gradually  worked  into  a  pure-bred  line  of  stock.  Besides 
paying  off  the  original  mortgage,  has  a  farm  worth  $10,000, 
and  the  stock  is  worth  at  least  $5000  more.  Another  such  ex- 
ample is  that  of  F.  E.  Duffy,  West  Hartford,  Ct.,  who  eight 
years  ago  bought  a  farm,  the  entire  annual  product  from 
which  brought  $33.  He  put  on  Jersey  cows,  followed  a  careful 
system  of  rotation  of  crops,  fertilized  the  land,  and  in  1909 
his  sales  totaled  $10,000. 

Beef  cattle  have  distinct  possibilities.  Less  than  5  percent 
of  the  beef  eaten  in  New  England  is  New  England  grown. 
Farmers  have  got  into  the  habit  of  letting  the  packing  houses 
supply  consumers.  There  are  a  few  choice  herds  of  Herford, 
Devon,  and  Shorthorn  cattle  in  the  New  England  states,  but 
in  most  cases  the  product  is  needed  for  breeding  purposes  and 
very  few  reach  the  butcher's  block.  What  local  beef  is  turned 
into  the  markets  always  returns  gratifying  prices.  The  lack 
of  suitable  abattoirs  in  the  small  towns  is  a  drawback  to  the 
raising  of  beef,  but  those  farmers  who  are  located  at  some  dis- 
tance from  the  railroad  and  on  cheap  land  might  well  con- 
sider the  advisability  of  keeping  a  beef  or  dual-purpose  breed. 
H.  C.  Weymouth,  Dexter,  Me.,  sold  a  pair  of  cattle  at  the 
Brighton,  Mass.,  stock  market  at  7  cents  a  pound.  They 
weighed  1900  pounds  each,  which  is  a  return  of  $130  per  ani- 
mal. G.  E.  Taylor,  Shelburne  Falls,  Mass.,  says  he  milks 
shorthorn  cows  as  long  as  they  are  profitable,  and  then  sells 
them  for  beef,  receiving  $60  to  $75  each.  The  point  is,  if  it  is 
possible  for  men  to  make  such  records  with  broken-down  oxen 
and  milch  cows,  what  would  be  the  outlook  for  a  man  who 

[  149  ] 


New  England  Agriculture 

made  a  specialty  with  a  distinct  beef  breed,  bred  for  beef 
purposes?  The  problem  of  raising  beef  for  the  market  is  not 
solved  when  the  farmer  finds  he  can  afford  to  save  and  raise 
his  calves.  Not  only  are  there  few  slaughtering  establishments 
but  there  is  no  adequate  system  of  storage  and  distribution 
for  home-bred  beef.  The  machinery  for  slaughtering  and 
handling  will  be  developed,  however,  if  conditions  remain 
favorable  for  the  raiser ;  and  we  may  hope  that  the  signs  of  an 
impending  revival  in  cattle  raising  may  prove  true  auguries 
of  the  hoped-for  fact. 

When  livestock  authorities  of  the  West  and  abroad  visit 
New  England  they  are  astonished  to  see  so  few  sheep.  The 
question  is  again  and  again  asked,  "  Where  are  your  sheep?  " 
The  sheep  industry  has  greatly  declined  in  the  East  for  years, 
and  now  not  one  sheep  is  found  in  New  England  where  for- 
merly there  were  a  dozen.  That  this  is  not  due  to  unprofitable- 
ness is  shown  by  the  remarkable  success  of  those  who  stick  to 
the  industry.  Conditions  could  not  be  more  ideal  for  successful 
sheep  husbandry  than  in  New  England,  with  the  exception  of 
possible  loss  through  damage  by  dogs.  But  dog  damage  does 
not  in  the  least  deter  those  who  have  really  made  up  their 
minds  to  raise  sheep,  and  in  recent  years  there  has  teen  legis- 
lative action  in  the  different  New  England  states  looking  to  a 
better  protection  of  flocks.  New  England  hill  pastures  pro- 
vided with  abundance  of  water  and  good  feed  are  just  the 
place  in  which  sheep  revel.  The  climate  imparts  vigor,  and  the 
sheep  shows  its  appreciation  through  clip  of  wool  and  robust 
offspring.  A  good  lamb  produced  in  season  for  hotel  trade  will 
never  bring  less  than  $8,  and  as  high  as  $20  is  occasionally  re- 
ported. Probably  less  than  10  percent  of  the  lambs  for  the 
New  England  market  are  raised  in  New  England.  With  such  a 
demand  unfilled  by  local  production,  and  with  prices  so  re- 
munerative, the  reader  can  judge  for  himself  as  to  the  possi- 
bilities. A  few  typical  examples  of  men  who  are  raising  sheep 
today  are  illuminating.  M.  H.  Munson,  Littlefield,  Mass.,  gave 
up  his  job  in  a  Chicago  packing  house  and  bought  a  cheap 
Massachusetts  farm.  He  now  raises  lambs  which  at  70  days  old 
bring  $7  each,  and  he  has  the  ewe  and  wool  left.  W.  C.  Whit- 

[  151  ] 


New  England  Agriculture 

man  &  Son,  South  Turner,  Me.,  received,  in  1909,  a  gross  re- 
turn of  $9.50  each  for  sheep,  and  had  a  better  flock  at  the  close 
of  the  year  than  at  the  start.  Some  of  their  hothouse  lambs 
sold  at  $10  to  $12  each.  In  1908,  the  98  ewes  of  E.  L.  Tracy, 
Newport,  Vt.,  gave  him  132  lambs  which  later  sold  at  $5.50 
each.  A.  L.  Harlow,  Brownsville,  Vt.,  has  stuck  to  the  sheep 
business  for  20  years.  His  flock  shears  an  average  of  10 
pounds  to  the  head,  which  means  $3  each  for  wool  in  a  normal 
season.  His  lambs  at  five  weeks  old  weigh  40  pounds,  and  at  ten 
weeks  100  pounds.  They  are  dropped  in  January  and  Feb- 
ruary, and  sold  to  hotels  at  $10  each,  dressed.  C.  C.  Jones, 
Bennington,  Vt.,  specializes  with  lambs  of  the  Dorset  breed, 
which  at  five  weeks  old  weigh  40  pounds,  and  at  16  weeks  130 
pounds.  From  December  to  February,  in  the  winter  of  1909- 
1910,  lambs  dressing  30  to  40  pounds  each  brought  an  average 
return  of  $12  a  head  in  the  New  York  market.  Mr.  Jones  says 
if  a  man  cannot  clear  on  100  ewes  $700  to  $900  annually  he  is 
not  getting  what  he  should. 

With  New  England  pork  selling  as  high  as  for  two  years 
past,  with  quantities  of  available  skim-milk  and  abundant 
pasturage,  not  to  mention  the  large  quantities  of  available 
garbage  from  towns  and  cities,  swine  offer  an  attractive 
proposition.  A.  J.  Stapleton,  Springfield,  Mass.,  bought  a 
light,  sandy  farm  of  65  acres,  gave  up  a  $1400-a-year  job, 
and  went  to  raising  hogs  and  alfalfa.  He  is  meeting  with  re- 
markable success,  and  says :  "  If  I  had  given  up  my  work  five 
years  earlier  and  devoted  entire  attention  to  hogs  and  alfalfa, 
I  would  have  been  $10,000  ahead  of  the  game  now."  E.  H. 
Clark,  East  Morris,  Ct.,  October  17,  1909,  bought  35  pigs 
six  weeks  old  for  $78.50.  JJecember  21  following  he  bought 
two  hogs  for  $30.  He  grain-fed  the  lot  to  February  18,  at  a 
cost  of  $115.  On  the  latter  date  he  sold  3324  pounds  of  pork 
at  wholesale  at  12!/2  cents,  or  $478,  and  632  pounds  a  few 
days  later  at  11  cents,  returning  $69.50.  The  total  cost  was 
$224,  leaving  a  profit  of  $323  for  four  months'  interest  on  his 
money  and  the  little  time  it  took  to  feed.  A  Vermont  farmer, 
J.  R.  Barry,  St.  Albans,  raised  70  pigs  in  1908,  and  sold 
them  for  $1088.  Pigs  were  charged  with  all  the  grain  and 

I  153  J 


New  England 

skim-milk  used,  also  at  the  rate  of  $3.50  each  for  original 
cost.  After  paying  these  expenses  the  pigs  netted  $5.82  each. 
A  Maine  farmer  who  is  enthusiastic  concerning  New  England 
resources  is  George  M.  Twitchell,  Auburn.  He  says  he  can 
raise  pork  at  3  cents  a  pound,  doing  it  largely  on  pasture 
which  includes  clover  or  alfalfa,  and  perhaps  rape.  When 
1910  pork  brought  10  and  11  cents  a  pound  wholesale,  and 
with  this  difference  of  7  cents  between  cost  and  selling  price, 
a  determined  farmer  ought  to  get  along.  It  suggests  a  profit 
of  $15  to  $25  on  every  hog. 

New  England  farmers  import  millions  of  dollars  worth  of 
western  horses  every  year.  It  is  said  that  Aroostook  county, 
Me.,  the  land  of  potatoes,  buys  about  a  million  dollars  worth 
of  horses  annually.  In  the  fall  of  1909  the  writer  happened  to 
be  in  a  sales  stable  at  Fort  Fairfield,  Me.,  Aroostook  county, 
when  a  car  of  28  horses  arrived  from  the  West.  It  cost  $8000 
to  land  the  bunch  in  Maine,  and  the  owner  said  the  cheapest 
pair  would  sell  at  $600,  and  the  most  desirable  match  would 
bring  $1000.  Aroostook  farmers  buy  these  heavy  horses  for 
their  potato  machinery.  The  same  condition  prevails  in  other 
New  England  sections.  The  farmers  are  buying  their  horses 
instead  of  raising  them,  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  a  desirable 
heavy  working  team  cannot  be  had  for  much  less  than  $600. 
New  England  is  the  home  of  the  tough  and  rugged  Morgan 
horse,  and  the  recent  assistance  of  the  federal  government  in 
a  cooperative  breeding  plant  at  Middlebury,  Vt.,  it  is  be- 
lieved, will  renew  interest  in  breeding  these  horses.  That 
locally  grown  stock  is  usually  desired  is  shown  by  the  keen- 
ness with  which  they  are  snapped  up  at  fancy  prices. 

The  opportunity  for  poultry  raising  in  New  England  is 
unlimited.  With  the  many  large  cities  and  manufacturing 
towns  employing  thousands  of  hands  who  are  absolutely  de- 
pendent upon  the  farmers  for  their  food,  the  market  is  always 
sure.  New  England  is  now  producing  but  a  small  proportion 
of  the  eggs  and  poultry  it  consumes,  whereas  it  should  be  able 
to  put  a  very  large  surplus  into  the  general  market.  It  is  not 
difficult  to  begin  the  business.  Many  farmers  have  started  in 
a  small  way  with  a  little  poultry,  carefully  felt  their  way 

[  154  ] 


New  England  Agriculture 

along,  and  finally  developed  returns  of  $4000  to  $5000  an- 
nually. Henry  D.  Smith,  Rockland,  Mass.,  for  22  years  de- 
voted his  energies  to  mercantile  life,  then  started  to  raise 
poultry.  He  now  hatches  around  5000  chicks  annually,  and 
keeps  about  400  laying  hens  through  the  winter.  His  specialty 
is  roasters.  C.  C.  Peck  of  South  Sekonk,  Mass.,  started,  in 
1900,  in  the  poultry  business,  without  a  cent.  A  neighbor  fur- 
nished the  plant  and  money,  against  which  Mr.  Peck  placed 
his  labor.  Within  four  years  Mr.  Peck  bought  out  the  part- 
ner. He  hatches  3500  chickens  annually,  and  sells  the  cock- 
erels as  roasters  at  24  to  25  cents  per  pound  in  the  Providence 
market.  From  1000  to  1200  laying  hens  are  wintered.  For  the 
year  ending  December  31,  1909,  his  1050  hens  averaged  174 
eggs  each.  A  liberal  estimate  for  cost  of  feed  is  ^>  cent  a  day 
per  hen,  which  leaves  around  $3  per  hen  annually,  not  includ- 
ing roasters  and  broilers.  Lester  Tompkins,  Concord,  Mass., 
started  in  a  modest  way  with  a  small  capital  and  is  now  a 
recognized  American  authority  on  Rhode  Island  Reds.  A  few 
months  ago  he  sold  18  birds  for  $1800.  In  the  spring  of  19Q9 
he  sold  $3500  worth  of  eggs  for  hatching. 

The  many  valley  farms  in  New  England,  fed  with  never- 
failing  streams,  prove  ideal  meadow  lands.  The  late  George 
M.  Clark  of  Higganum,  Ct.,  was  a  typical  exponent  of  in- 
creased profits  through  grass  farming.  He  was  recognized, 
country-wide,  as  an  authority  on  big  hay  crops,  frequently 
cutting  as  much  as  six  tons  of  cured  hay  from  an  acre,  off 
fields  of  ten  to  twelve  acres.  He  was  successful  in  keeping  the 
land  in  grass  almost  indefinitely,  through  harrowing  the  land 
to  reseed,  and  judicious  use  of  chemical  fertilizers.  Hundreds 
of  cases  could  be  cited  where  New  England  farmers  are  tak- 
ing annually  three  to  four  tons  hay  to  the  acre.  In  central 
Maine,  W.  D.  Hurd,  while  at  the  state  university  at  Orono, 
placed  in  the  college  barn  4>y2  tons  hay  to  the  acre.  Rev.  G.  L. 
Gleason  of  Topsfield,  Mass.,  cut,  in  1910,  100  tons  hay  from 
about  30  acres  land.  He  says  he  has  taken  more  than  $100 
worth  of  hay  from  a  single  acre  in  a  single  season.  It  should 
be  remembered  that  New  England  not  only  harvests  these  fine 
yields  to  the  acre,  but  the  price  per  ton  received  is  unusually 

f  155  1 


New  England  Agriculture 

gratifying;  $15  to  $24  a  ton  is  the  range,  occasionally  more. 
C.  E.  Lyman,  Middlefield,  Ct.,  in  1910  cut  700  tons  from  300 
acres,  and  an  aftermath  of  100  tons  more.  In  addition  to  har- 
vesting these  700  tons  hay  he  harvested  the  same  season  about 
100,000  baskets  peaches  and  better  than  1000  barrels  apples. 
For  winter  knitting  work,  Mr.  Lyman  goes  to  Buffalo  or  Chi- 
cago and  buys  4000  or  5000  lambs,  and  brings  them  to  his 
farm  at  Middlefield  and  feeds  them  on  rowen,  silage,  and  a 
little  purchased  grain.  There  are  about  1000  acres  in  the  farm, 
and  it  is  reported  that  Mr.  Lyman  was  offered  $1,000,000  for 
the  farm  and  its  equipment.  While  this  sounds  like  a  fairy 
story,  a  little  figuring  will  show  that  such  an  offer  would  not 
necessarily  send  one  to  the  insane  asylum.  Reckoning  100,000 
baskets  peaches  at  an  average  of  only  60  cents  a  basket  would 
be  $60,000.  An  800-ton  hay  crop  at  a  low  estimate  is  worth 
$12,000  more.  One  thousand  barrels  apples  such  as  Mr. 
Lyman  has  are  worth  $5000.  His  profits  on  feeding  lambs  are 
another  $5000,  making  a  total  of  $82,000.  In  other  words, 
Mr.  Lyman's  farming  operations  are  paying  a  gross  income 
above  8  percent  on  a  valuation  of  $1,000,000. 

New  England  farmers  are  just  beginning  to  learn  that  they 
can  raise  alfalfa  with  remarkable  success.  This  will  revolution- 
ize eastern  agriculture  within  the  next  decade.  At  first  suc- 
cesses were  few ;  but  now  each  of  the  six  New  England  states 
is  accomplishing  something  with  the  crop.  In  Connecticut 
there  are  no  less  than  a  dozen  who  are  succeeding  with  alfalfa 
in  a  large  way.  One  of  these  is  Charles  M.  Jarvis  of  Berlin, 
Ct.,  who  has  50  acres  of  as  fine  alfalfa  as  ever  stood  outdoors. 
He  cut,  in  1910,  six  tons  to  the  acre.  With  the  possibility  of 
producing  this  crop,  which  is  worth  practically  as  much,  ton 
for  ton,  as  bran,  New  England  dairying  and  livestock  hus- 
bandry has  a  brilliant  outlook. 

POTATOES  IN  NEW  ENGLAND 

Even  the  potato  states  of  New  York,  Minnesota,  and  Michi- 
gan have  to  acknowledge  the  fame  of  Aroostook  county,  Me., 
when  it  comes  to  potatoes.  No  county  in  the  world  has  so 

F  157  1 


New  England  Agriculture 

specialized  on  this  industry  as  has  A'roostook.  Many  stories 
could  be  told  of  how  young  men  with  little  capital  in  Aroos- 
took  county  buy  farms  and  practically  pay  for  them  the  first 
season.  A  man  who  has  less  than  50  acres  of  potatoes  annually 
is  a  "  one-horse  potato  farmer,"  and  acreages  of  100  to  150 
for  a  single  farmer  are  usual.  The  Aroostook  soil  seems  es- 
pecially adapted  to  potato  production,  ranging  from  a  gravelly 
loam  to  a  clear  loam  of  a  clayish  base.  Usually  the  potato  crop 
follows  a  clover  sod.  A  three-year  rotation  of  potatoes,  oats, 
or  wheat,  seeded  to  clover  and  plowed  under  for  another  crop 
of  potatoes  is  much  in  vogue.  Occasionally,  two  succeeding 
crops  of  potatoes  are  grown  on  the  same  land,  and  in  rare  in- 
stances three  crops,  but  this  is  generally  avoided  owing  to 
danger  of  scab  or  diseased  potatoes.  The  Aroostook  farmer 
puts  on  close  to  a  ton  of  commercial  fertilizer  to  the  acre.  A 
few  days  after  the  potatoes  are  planted  and  before  they  break 
ground  a  wecdcr  is  run  over  to  dislocate  any  sprouting  weed 
seed  and  conserve  moisture.  When  the  plants  are  up  a  hillcr  is 
used  and  dirt  thrown  completely  over  the  young  vines.  This  in 
turn  is  worked  down  with  the  weeder.  Subsequent  cultivation 
is  with  the  two-horse  cultivator,  and  later  in  the  season  a  hiller 
is  used  to  ridge  the  rows.  Harvesting  is  done  with  the  potato 
digger,  followed  by  pickers,  placing  the  tubers  directly  into 
barrels.  All  trade  is  on  barrel  basis,  bushels  seldom  if  ever 
being  mentioned.  Many  are  sold  from  the  field  and  quantities 
are  stored  in  immense  storehouses,  many  of  which  the  farmers 
own.  A  normal  yield  is  100  barrels  to  the  acre.  A  fair  price  is 
$1  a  barrel,  although  $1.25  is  not  uncommon.  Here  is  a  cash 
return  in  a  normal  season  under  normal  conditions  of  $100  to 
$125  an  acre.  This  is  frequently  exceeded  through  increased 
yield,  or  better  prices,  or  both.  The  cost  of  production  will 
run  $50  to  $60  per  acre.  This  includes  fertilizers,  seed,  spray- 
ing materials,  labor,  etc.  Modern  machinery  from  start  to 
finish  is  in  service,  so  that  one  man  and  a  team  can  easily  handle 
25  acres.  This  leaves  the  tidy  sum  of  $50  to  $75  an  acre  for 
rent  of  land  or  to  apply  on  the  purchase  price.  This  section  is 
fast  coming  to  the  front  as  a  seed-producing  county.  A  strong 
trade  has  developed  in  Aroostook-grown  seed  for  southern 

f  159  1 


New  England  Agriculture 


and  southwestern  markets.  In  a  full  crop  year,  12,000,000 
bushels  of  potatoes  are  shipped  out  of  Aroostook  county  over 
the  Bangor  &  Aroostook  railroad.  From  the  crop  of  1909  a 
total  of  9,363,000  bushels  were  shipped  out  of  Aroostook.  The 
table  following  shows  the  exact  shipments  as  furnished  by  an 
official  of  the  railroad : 


From  crop  of  1909 
1908 
1907 
1906 
1905 
1904 
1903 
1902 
1901 
1900 


9,362,842  bushels 
11,796,500      " 
6,006,845      " 
12,329,010      " 
7,725,372 
6,694,071 
3,341,735 
3,112,466 
4,471,183 
3,043,879 


Farmers  in  other  sections  of  New  England  are  learning  that 
they,  too,  can  secure  equal  or  better  returns  per  acre  for 
potato  culture  than  Aroostook  county.  Somerset,  Washington, 
and  Oxford  counties  in  Maine  are  coming  forward  in  this  way. 
Massachusetts  and  Connecticut  have  long  been  in  the  front 
rank  as  regards  production  per  acre.  Rev.  G.  L.  Gleason  of 
Topsfield,  Mass.,  has  raised  360  bushels  to  the  acre.  Charles 
E.  Ellis,  a  Vermont  farmer,  succeeded  in  raising,  in  1909,  a 
crop  of  465  bushels  to  the  acre,  which  sold  from  the  field  at 
54  cents  a  bushel,  $251.10  gross  return  to  the  acre.  He  figured 
the  fertilizer  and  labor  cost  $70  to  the  acre.  E.  H.  Forristall, 
of  Amherst,  Mass.,  raised,  in  1908,  350  bushels  to  the  acre  on 
new  ground.  E.  S.  Brigham,  of  St.  Albans,  Vt.,  raises  300 
bushels  to  the  acre,  and  through  a  careful  itemized  account  of 
expenditures  finds  he  nets  $100  to  the  acre.  J.  R.  Smith  of 
Hawley,  Mass.,  had  40  acres  in  potatoes,  in  1908,  and  har- 
vested better  than  300  bushels  to  the  acre. 

TOBACCO  IN  NEW  ENGLAND 

In  Connecticut  and  Farmington  river  valleys  in  Massa- 
chusetts and  Connecticut  the  cigar-leaf  tobacco  industry  is 
large,  occupying  about  20,000  acres.  In  1910  Connecticut 
raised  more  than  13,400  acres  of  tobacco,  which  yielded  over 

[  161  ] 


New  England 

23,000,000  pounds  of  leaf  worth  $3,800,000,  and  the  total 
value  of  the  New  England  tobacco  crop  was  over  $5,000,000. 
The  soil  is  especially  adapted  to  growing  the  tobacco  of  which 
cigar  wrappers  and  binders  are  made  (which  differs  from  the 
heavier  and  coarser  types  of  tobacco  grown  in  the  South), 
being  light  color,  friable,  and  might  be  called  a  sandy  loam. 
The  crop  is  not  especially  exhaustive  to  the  soil,  but  liberal 
amounts  of  fertilizer  are  used  because  each  acre  supports  an 
enormous  plant  growth  every  year.  Liberal  applications  of 
New  York  city  horse  manure,  combined  with  cottonseed  meal, 
phosphoric  acid,  and  potash  in  various  forms,  practically 
guarantees  a  good  crop  each  year.  In  1909  in  New  England 
was  produced  90,500  cases  of  cigar-leaf  tobacco,  each  case 
weighing  350  pounds.  According  to  the  government  estimate 
the  average  price  received  last  year  for  tobacco  grown  out-of- 
doors  was  16  cents  per  pound.  With  an  average  yield  around 
2000  pounds  cured  leaf,  selling  even  at  the  average  price  of 
16  cents,  it  is  seen  this  is  a  profitable  crop.  With  intelligent, 
intensive  cultivation,  combined  with  up-to-date  methods,  as 
high  as  2600  pounds  is  obtained  and  about  25  cents  per  pound 
received.  Beside  the  tobacco  which  is  grown  in  the  open  fields 
in  Connecticut  there  were  in  1910  about  470  acres  of  tobacco 
grown  under  tents,  known  as  shade-grown  tobacco.  About  ten 
years  ago  the  first  tobacco  was  grown  under  shade  in  New 
England.  It  was  considered  to  be  a  fair  success,  but  growers 
lacked  experience  and  the  proper  variety  of  tobacco  with  which 
to  work.  They  started  with  Sumatra  leaf,  which  took  too  long 
to  mature.  Acreage  in  1902  was  about  700,  but  dropped  until 
in  1908  only  190  acres  were  grown  in  the  Connecticut  valley. 
In  the  next  year  about  240  acres  were  devoted  to  shade-grown, 
and  in  1910,  470.  The  success  is  largely  due  to  the  introduc- 
tion of  the  Cuban  variety,  which  cures  quickly  and  is  popular 
with  the  trade.  As  high  as  $2.50  per  pound  is  received  for  the 
best  shade-grown  tobacco,  and  the  poorer  leaves  bring  from 
60  cents  up,  with  $1.50  a  good  average;  the  average  for  1910 
being  $1.59.  It  is  safe  to  say  that  five  times  as  much  tobacco 
could  be  grown  in  New  England  as  is  grown  today,  of  such 
quality  as  to  insure  sales  at  paying  prices.  The  land  near  the 

[  162] 


New  England  Agriculture 

sea,  however  fit  for  the  growth  of  tobacco,  cannot  be  devoted 
to  that  crop  because  proximity  to  the  sea  damages  the  burn- 
ing quality  of  the  leaf.  It  should  also  be  said  that  not  all  the 
lands  in  the  tobacco-growing  region  are  well  adapted  to  grow- 
ing such  leaf  as  the  market  requires.  The  supremacy  of  New 
England  in  the  business  of  producing  cigar  wrappers  has  been 
gained  by  growing  the  crop  on  farms  where  it  was  the  only 
product  (or  the  leading  product),  by  carefully  conducted  ex- 
periment, and  by  a  willingness  on  the  part  of  leading  growers 
to  accept  and  practice  such  methods  as  had  been  demonstrated 
by  experiment  and  experience  to  be  real  improvements. 

A  SUGGESTION  OR  Two 

Though  much  progress  has  been  made  there  remains  some- 
thing for  New  England  farmers.  They  must  use  greater  care 
in  crop  production;  they  must  encourage  the  cooperative 
movement  in  selling,  and  especially  in  purchasing  supplies ; 
they  must  study  more  carefully  the  question  of  fertility  and 
keeping  up  the  soil  through  proper  rotation,  the  wise  use  of 
stable  manure  and  commercial  fertilizer.  In  this  first  principle 
of  agriculture,  the  study  and  care  of  the  soil,  there  is  much 
still  to  be  accomplished.  In  many  instances  farmers  fail  to 
reap  what  they  should,  and  this  through  conditions  which  they 
might  control.  Untold  numbers  of  meadows  may  be  seen  on 
which  the  land  has  not  been  plowed  for  ten  to  twenty  years. 
In  such  instances  it  should  be  given  a  thorough  plowing  or 
reseeding ;  or,  better  yet,  used  in  a  rotation  for  several  seasons 
with  a  cultivated  crop  before  reseeding  to  clover  or  timothy. 
Humus  for  the  soil  is  sadly  neglected.  This  should  be  pro- 
vided through  the  spreading  upon  the  land  of  plenty  of  stable 
manure,  and  plowing  under  such  crops  as  clover,  rye  and 
buckwheat.  New  England  soils  are  acid,  usually  through  con- 
tinued neglect.  This  requires,  among  other  things,  a  proper 
application  of  lime. 

A  factor  which  constructive  agriculture  in  New  England 
must  face  is  the  live-stock  proposition.  Too  few  animals  are 
kept  on  the  farm.  Nothing  is  equal  to  live  stock  to  increase 

I  163  ] 


CLYDESDALE  STALLION,  NATIVE  OF  MAINE 


HOLSTEIN  BULL,  OWNED  IN  MASSACHUSETTS 


New  England  Agriculture 

the  productiveness  of  the  soil.  More  crops  to  raise  more  stock 
to  make  more  fertilizer  to  raise  more  crops,  is  the  familiar  old 
school  of  farming  which  still  enriches  both  father  and  son. 
The  average  New  England  farmer  keeps  only  about  half  the 
stock  he  should,  and  on  top  of  that  buys  50  to  90  percent  of 
the  feed  for  these  animals.  This  policy  is  both  unnecessary 
and  is  lacking  in  profit.  The  situation  is  shown  by  the  remark- 
able successes  of  many  who  have  gone  largely  into  animal 
husbandry  and  are  raising  the  feeds  on  their  own  farms.  New 
England  should  grow  more  fruit,  notably  apples ;  winter  va- 
rieties largely,  but  some  autumn  fruit.  Untold  numbers  of 
apple  trees  in  pasture  today  bear  only  cider  apples.  These 
should  be  brought  into  subjection,  grafted  with  standard 
sorts,  cultivated,  pruned  and  sprayed.  Many  a  farm  has  a 
considerable  number  of  such  trees.  If  the  owner  would  thus 
care  for  them,  give  them  a  little  commercial  fertilizer  in  the 
spring,  and  spray  even  once  with  bordeaux  and  arsen.ate  of 
lead,  just  as  the  blossoms  fall,  he  would  sell  $500  to  $1000 
worth  of  fruit  annually,  or  perhaps  more,  where  nothing  is 
now  received.  It  is  practicable  for  the  farmer  with  some  capi- 
tal to  start  a  young  orchard  and  take  care  of  it.  In  the  early 
years  of  the  trees  let  him  raise  live  stock;  the  space  between 
the  rows  will  afford  opportunity  for  helpful  crops.  Peaches 
prove  a  profitable  crop  the  third  or  fourth  year  after  plant- 
ing, and  apples  will  give  a  fine  return  after  a  somewhat  longer 
period.  Every  apple  tree  in  an  established  orchard  at  least 
three  years  old  is  worth  $3,  and  a  ten-year  old  tree  is  worth 
$10.  The  production  of  the  crop  is  only  half  the  battle.  Raise 
better  stuff,  put  it  up  more  attractively  for  the  consumer,  and 
then  seek  the  discriminating  market  which  is  always  glad  to 
pay  for  such  forethought.  Cooperative  effort  among  producers 
is  likely  to  bring  a  more  satisfactory  condition.  Quite  aside 
from  such  associated  effort,  it  is  possible  for  the  wide-awake 
farmer  to  create  a  reputation  for  his  wares  which  will  place 
them  at  a  premium  in  the  market. 


165 


Soils  of  New  England 

THE  soil  is  an  asset  which,  beside  being  the  greatest  possible 
asset  of  New  England,  will  yield  dividends  in  direct  ratio  to 
our  understanding  and  utilization  of  it.  It  is  doubtful  if  there 
is  any  known  limit  to  its  productiveness,  as  a  proposition  that 
can  be  defined  and  depended  upon.  Despite  the  fact  that  the 
soil  has  been  the  chief  support  of  mankind  since  man  existed, 
we  have  but  recently  begun  to  know  definitely  about  it ;  and  we 
do  not  new  know  very  much  that  we  are  able  to  regard  as  exact 
and  final.  We  have  looked  upon  the  soil  as  a  nutritive  medium 
for  the  growth  of  plants,  but  this  rather  crude  chemical  point 
of  view  is  extending  to  a  consideration  of  the  soil  as  the  seat  of 
a  number  of  physical  processes  affecting  the  supply  of  heat, 
air,  and  water  to  the  plant;  and  as  a  complex  laboratory  in 
wljich  there  are  many  types  of  lower  organisms  working  to 
promote  or  retard  the  growth  of  the  plants.  We  are  beginning 
to  realize  that  we  must  look  upon  the  soil  from  a  chemical,  a 
physical,  and  a  biological  point  of  view,  and  also  study  the 
liquid  medium  that  circulates  in  the  soil  and  directly  forms  the 
food  the  plants  must  have.  These  processes  help  to  explain, 
and  are  vitally  affected  by,  the  various  tillage  operations  which 
have  been  learned  and  used  in  the  cultivation  of  the  land,  and 
suggest  other  processes.  The  hope  of  future  progress  and 
profit  lies,  in  great  measure,  in  the  adaptation  for  practical 
ends  of  these  three  processes  that  are  always  at  work  in  the 
soil.  Add  to  the  knowledge  and  manipulation  of  these  forces  a 
proper  and  knowlcdgable  consideration  for  the  climate,  and  we 
have  the  sum  of  what  may  be  called  the  new  knowledge  of  the 
soils,  which  may  be  made  of  the  greatest  use  and  benefit  to  the 
farmer,  and  greatly  increase  both  his  output  and  his  profits. 
Farming  has  generally  been  conducted  in  measurable  igno- 
rance of  the  soil,  and  is  now  so  conducted.  It  would  have  as- 
tonished and  amused  our  grandfathers  to  have  been  told  that 

f  166  1 


Soils  of  New  England 

it  was  living  organisms  in  the  ground  which  fitted  it  to  pro- 
duce crops.  It  would  astonish  and  amuse  the  majority  of 
farmers  of  today.  Farmers  till  the  ground  for  the  purpose  of 
raising  corn,  potatoes,  or  some  other  crop.  They  would  regard 
it  as  absurd  to  be  told  that  they  must  also  interest  themselves 
in  the  cultivation  of  certain  varieties  of  bacteria,  and  in  the  ex- 
termination of  other  varieties  of  bacteria.  Yet  that  is  what  we 
are  coming  to,  and  in  such  considerations  is  to  be  found  the 
hope  of  better  crops  from  the  land  and  better  profits  for  the 
farmers.  To  know  the  land,  and  to  know  what  to  do  with  and 
to  the  land  —  these  seem  to  be  the  problems  before  the  farmers 
of  New  England  today.  It  is  not  difficult  to  know  the  land, 
and  there  are  many  sources  for  information  as  to  what  to 
do  with  the  land,  when  once  it  is  known  what  the  land  is. 
The  farmer  has  to  study  his  land,  and  then  he  has  only  to 
consider  what  he  will  do  with  it,  and  the  markets  within  his 
reach. 

The  maintenance  of  soil  fertility  is  a  subject  far  too  intri- 
cate and  full  of  detail  to  discuss  here.  It  is  also  so  dependent 
upon  variable  and  local  conditions  as  to  preclude  profitable 
general  treatment  in  small  space.  Fertility  and  crop  pro- 
duction do  not  mean  the  same  thing.  Fertility  is  an  inherent 
property  of  the  soil  —  what  the  soil  is  capable  of  doing 
under  the  best  possible  conditions.  Crop  production  depends 
only  partly  upon  the  fertility  of  the  soil,  but  more  exactly 
upon  the  treatment  of  the  soil,  seed,  climate,  the  human 
element,  etc. 

The  whole  business  of  agriculture  rests  upon  the  soil.  If 
the  farmer  does  not  know  the  soil  he  is  wasting  his  opportuni- 
ties and  jeopardizing  his  earnings.  The  soil  must  be  consid- 
ered in  two  aspects  —  the  quantity  it  will  produce  and  the 
quality  of  that  which  it  produces.  To  determine  these  essen- 
tials in  advance  of  long  and  costly  experimentation  it  is  neces- 
sary to  study  the  soil  with  reference  to  its  origin,  to  range  it 
in  its  proper  class ;  determine  if  it  is  sedentary  soil,  or  if  it 
has  been  transported  from  some  region  where  its  geologic 
origin  must  have  been  quite  different;  ascertain  the  kind  of 
rock  that  has  been  weathered  to  form  it ;  its  subsoil,  etc.  When 

[  167] 


Soils  of  New  England 

this  has  been  ascertained  (which  is  not  a  difficult  matter),  the 
soil  should  be  subjected  to  mechanical  analysis,  to  determine 
its  chief  constituents  and  classify  it,  as  sand,  clay,  limestone, 
etc.,  and  ascertain  the  proportion  and  quality  of  the  humus 
that  has  been  incorporated  in  it.  This  mechanical  analysis 
also  shows  the  texture  of  the  soil,  which  we  must  know  to  de- 
termine its  density  and  pore  space  and  estimate  its  capacity 
for  holding  water,  and  demonstrates  for  us  those  exceed- 
ingly interesting  facts  connected  with  what  the  scientists  call 
"  surface  tension  "  and  capillary  —  which  vitally  interest  the 
farmer,  as  they  have  to  do  with  the  question  of  the  moisture  in 
the  soil  and  the  power  of  the  soil  to  retain  it.  And  this  mechan- 
ical analysis  also  suggests  particular  treatment  for  particular 
soils  with  a  view  to  conserve  moisture  or  to  deal  with  excessive 
moisture,  in  the  way  of  draining,  cultivating,  and  other  manip- 
ulation calculated  to  conserve  moisture  and  aid  the  soil  to 
overcome  the  effects  of  drought  or  flood.  It  deals  also  with 
the  question  of  the  temperature  of  soils,  evaporation,  effect  of 
situation  and  exposure,  heat  required  for  growth,  early  and 
late  soils,  and  such  subjects  —  all  vital  for  the  success  of 
farming  operations.  Chemical  analysis  of  the  soil  is  not  es- 
teemed as  able  to  settle  all  the  questions  that  arise  in  the  lexi- 
con of  the  farmer  as  once  it  may  have  been  esteemed;  but  if 
it  is  properly  made  it  does  show  the  amount  of  the  elements 
necessary  for  the  nutrition  of  the  plant  existing  in  the  soil, 
and  what  must  be  done  to  supply  the  deficiencies  revealed.  It 
is  now  employed  more  for  research  purposes  than  for  the  prac- 
tical information  of  the  man  actually  raising  crops.  While  the 
identification  of  the  bacteria  in  soils  is  the  function  of  biology, 
the  value  or  harmfulness  of  the  work  of  the  bacteria,  in  trans- 
forming chemical  elements  for  the  benefit  or  damage  of  the 
plant,  is  shown  by  the  chemical  analysis ;  and  it  deals  with  most 
of  the  problems  bearing  upon  the  successful  growth  of  plants, 
after  mechanical  analysis  has  determined  the  mechanical  com- 
position of  the  soil,  and  biology  has  found  out  what  kinds  of 
bacteria  inhabit  it. 

This  is  general,  and  applies  to  soils  everywhere.  It  is  of 
especial  importance  in  New  England  because  the  soils  of  New 

f  169  1 


New  England 

England  are  so  varied  that  it  is  impossible  to  classify  them. 
There  is  liable  to  be  several  soil  types  within  the  area  of  one 
farm;  and  the  adjoining  farm  may  have  as  many  types  but 
none  of  them  identical  with  the  types  upon  the  first  farm. 
There  is  nothing  like  knowing  the  material  to  be  worked  with, 
especially  if  the  total  income  must  come  from  that  material. 
No  manufacturer  would  attempt  to  start  a  factory  until  he 
had  made  a  thorough  study  of  the  raw  material  to  be  wrought 
into  a  product  that  was  to  be  offered  for  sale.  No  New  Eng- 
land farmer  should  attempt  to  raise  any  kind  of  crops  until 
he  has  become  familiar  with  the  exact  composition  and  char- 
acteristics of  the  soil  he  is  to  rely  upon  for  his  crops.  This  is 
axiomatic. 

The  soils  of  New  England  produced,  in  1899,  a  total  vol- 
ume of  new  wealth  amounting  to  $169,523,435.  Since  that 
time  both  the  amount  of  agricultural  production  and  the  unit 
value  of  the  product  has  increased.  The  degree  of  increase 
can  only  be  shown  when  the  completed  figures  from  the  census 
of  1910  are  available. 

The  soils  of  New  England,  as  of  practically  all  portions  of 
the  United  States,  constitute  the  most  productive  of  all  of  the 
natural  sources  of  wealth.  Because  the  ownership  of  the  soil 
is  divided  into  a  vast  number  of  small  individual  holdings  the 
magnitude  of  the  aggregate  proceeds  from  soil  sources  is 
rarely  appreciated  in  the  business  world. 

There  are  two  essentials  connected  with  the  value  of  soils 
which  are  most  frequently  overlooked  in  the  consideration  of 
agricultural  affairs.  First,  the  soil  is  the  chief  source  of  the 
fundamental  necessities  of  life  —  food,  clothing  and  shelter. 
Second,  the  soil  under  even  moderately  careful  methods  of 
tillage  is  competent  to  continue  the  production  of  these  neces- 
sities without  any  diminution  from  year  to  year,  and,  under 
the  best  modern  methods  of  agriculture,  the  production  of 
each  individual  acre  may  be  profitably  increased  from  genera- 
tion to  generation. 

It  should  be  stated  at  once,  as  a  result  of  an  examination 
of  the  soils  of  the  New  England  states,  that  they  are  in  no 
way  "  worn-out  "  or  exhausted.  In  fact,  only  12  percent  of 

[  170  ] 


Soils  of  New  England 

the  total  land  area,  25  percent  of  the  area  in  farms,  and  63 
percent  of  their  improved-land  area,  is  annually  cropped. 
The  remainder  of  the  land  heritage  of  New  England  is  marsh- 
land, pasture,  wood-lot,  forest,  and  mountain  slope,  never  yet 
subjected  to  the  devastating  hand  of  man,  nor  called  upon, 
through  the  wiser  methods  of  progressive  farmers,  to  produce 
its  quota  of  human  sustenance.  In  all  of  the  New  England 
states  there  still  exist  large  tracts  of  land  subject  to  occupa- 
tion and  improvement,  and  in  the  more  northern  states  of 
Maine,  New  Hampshire  and  Vermont  there  are  large  areas 
which  are  as  much  virgin  soil  as  when  the  Pilgrims  landed  on 
Plymouth  Rock.  Even  the  tilled  soils  of  New  England,  which 
have  been  occupied  for  nearly  two  and  a  half  centuries,  are 
not  exhausted.  In  too  many  instances  they  are  merely  neg- 
lected. Farms  whose  annual  yield  is  barely  sufficient  for  the 
support  of  the  farm  family  are  closely  contiguous  to  others 
whose  annual  product  amounts  to  hundreds  of  dollars  per 
acre.  In  the  aggregate  statistics  of  crop  production  for  the 
United  States,  the  figures  for  the  New  England  states  show 
that  the  production  per  acre  of  corn  in  New  England  exceeds 
the  average  for  the  states  of  the  "  corn  belt " ;  that  the  aver- 
age yields  of  potatoes  exceed  all  others  except  in  restricted 
areas  under  irrigation ;  and  that  wherever  New  England  soils 
compete  their  product  excels,  or  at  least  makes  favorable  com- 
parison with,  that  of  any  other  section  of  the  United  States. 
There  need  be  no  fear  that  the  soils  of  New  England  will  fail 
to  respond  to  proper  treatment  and  to  careful  tillage.  The 
soil  problems  of  New  England  are:  To  find  the  proper  uses 
for  each  different  soil,  to  till  each  acre  according  to  its  indi- 
vidual needs,  and  to  produce  those  crops  whose  high  value 
per  acre  will  justify  the  intensive  culture  which  should  be  be- 
stowed upon  land  of  high  value  and  in  close  proximity  to  ex- 
ceedingly favorable  markets. 

In  order  to  make  a  complete  and  definite  statement  of  the 
existing  and  potential  soil  resources  of  New  England  it  would 
be  necessary  to  complete  a  detailed  soil  survey  of  the  entire 
territory.  This  has  never  been  done.  It  would  require  years 
of  continued  effort  to  make  such  an  inventory.  Thus,  to  a 

f  171  1 


New  England 

degree,  the  soil  resources  of  the  six  New  England  states  still 
remain  unknown.  Detailed  soil  surveys  have  been  made  in  each 
of  the  New  England  states,  covering  important  agricultural 
areas  and  representing  conditions  over  adjoining  sections  of 
considerable  magnitude.  This  work  has  been  carried  on  by  the 
Bureau  of  Soils  of  the  United  States  Department  of  Agricul- 
ture since  1899,  when  the  first  soil  survey  of  a  portion  of  the 
Connecticut  valley  was  undertaken.  Since  that  time  the  origi- 
nal area  in  this  valley  has  been  extended  to  include  all  of  the 
land  in  the  Connecticut  and  Farmington  valleys  north  of 
Wethersfield,  Conn.,  to  the  Vermont  and  New  Hampshire 
lines.  In  Vermont,  an  area  has  been  surveyed  in  the  Lake 
Champlain  region;  in  New  Hampshire,  surveys  have  been 
made  of  Merrimac  county  and  of  the  Nashua  area,  compris- 
ing southern  Hillsboro  county.  In  Maine,  the  Caribou  area, 
which  covers  the  important  potato-producing  section  of  Aroos- 
took  county,  and  an  additional  area  of  about  450  square  miles 
around  Bangor  and  Orono,  has  been  investigated.  A  soil 
survey  of  the  entire  state  of  Rhode  Island  has  been  completed. 
Soil  surveys  of  Windham  county,  Conn.,  and  of  Plymouth 
county,  Mass.,  were  made  in  1910. * 

In  order  to  supplement  these  detailed  investigations  for  the 
purpose  of  presenting  a  general  statement  of  the  existing 
soil  resources  of  the  New  England  states,  a  rapid  reconnais- 
sance of  intervening  territory  was  made  during  the  summer 
of  1910.  Only  generalized  statements  of  the  character,  worth 
and  availability  of  New  England  soils  can  be  made  until  the 
detailed  soil  surveys  have  been  extended  to  comprise,  at  least, 
representative  areas  of  each  of  the  greater  natural  sub- 
divisions of  New  England  territory. 

The  individuality  of  soils,  and  consequently  the  character- 

1  Copies  of  the  following  soil  survey  reports  may  be  secured  without  charge 
upon  application  to  the  United  States  Department  of  Agriculture,  Washington, 
D.  C.  :  Soil  Survey  of  Windham  County,  Maine.  Soil  Survey  of  the  Caribou 
A  rea,  Maine.  Soil  Survey  of  the  Orono  Area,  Maine.  Soil  Survey  of  Merrimac 
County,  New  Hampshire.  Soil  survey  of  the  Nashua  Area,  New  Hampshire. 
Soil  Survey  of  the  Vergennes  Area,  Vermont.  Soil  Survey  of  the  Connecticut 
Valley,  Massachusetts.  Soil  Survey  of  Plymouth  County,  Massachusetts. 
Soil  Survey  of  Rhode  Island.  Soil  Survey  of  the  Connecticut  Valley, 
Connecticut. 

f  172  1 


Soils  of  New  England 

istics  and  the  properties  of  each,  depends  upon  the  source 
from  which  each  is  derived,  the  processes  through  which  each 
has  passed  in  its  slow  formation,  and  the  relationship  of  each 
soil  to  both  surface  and  internal  drainage.  In  other  words, 
the  soils  are  the  product  of  certain  geological  processes  which, 
when  they  operate  in  the  same  way  upon  the  same  classes  of 
rocks,  produce  the  same  results.  Such  identical  or  closely 
similar  soils,  when  existing  under  the  same  climatic  conditions, 
may  be  made  to  produce  the  same  kinds  of  crops  with  equal 
success  and  in  equal  profusion.  When  the  properties  of  a  soil 
are  once  ascertained,  the  lessons  learned  in  one  locality  may 
be  applied  in  others  more  or  less  remote,  if  there  be  assurance 
that  the  soils,  the  climate,  and  the  industry  of  the  farming 
community  are  similar.  All  of  the  soils  of  New  England  owe 
their  present  character  either  directly  or  indirectly  to  some 
phase  of  the  great  ice  invasion  which  in  recent  geological  times 
covered  the  entire  territory  with  a  thick  continental  glacier. 
This  glacier  then  melted  back  and  still  farther  modified  the 
soil  conditions  by  the  deposition  of  considerable  areas  of  modi- 
fied and  stratified  glacial  drift  in  the  lower-lying  valley  posi- 
tions. The  sea  also  invaded  portions  of  the  present  land  area 
and  added  certain  important  deposits  which  now  form  soils. 
All  of  these  soils  have  the  common  characteristics  of  having 
been  derived  from  a  variety  of  different  rocks  over  which  the 
glacier  passed  and  of  possessing  a  complex  mineralogical  com- 
position. They  contain  portions  of  practically  all  of  the  com- 
mon rock-forming  minerals,  and  as  a  consequence  are  all  well 
provided  with  a  variety  and  abundance  of  mineral  plant  food. 
The  chief  problem  in  connection  with  their  occupation  and  til- 
lage is  not  one  of  lack  of  mineral  plant  food,  but  rather  it  lies 
in  securing  an  abundance  of  water  within  the  soil  during  the 
crop-growing  season  that  the  plant  food  present  may  be  prop- 
erly prepared  and  transported  to  the  growing  crop. 

The  eastern  and  southeastern  coast  lines  of  New  England 
rise  to  low  elevations  above  the  sea.  It  is  only  along  portions 
of  the  Maine  coast  that  mountain  elevations  approach  to  tide- 
water. The  southern  coast  of  Connecticut  and  Rhode  Island 
and  the  eastern  coast  lines  of  Massachusetts  and  New  Hamp- 

[  173  ] 


New  England 

shire  are  all  low  and  relieved  only  by  headlands  of  one  or  two 
hundred  feet  elevation.  Between  these  higher  elevations  are 
level  plains  and  low  valleys,  consisting  of  sandy  and  loamy 
terraces  upon  which  the  intensive  agriculture  of  Rhode  Island 
and  southern  Connecticut  is  carried  on.  This  low  coastal  re- 
gion occupies  a  narrow  belt  some  twenty  to  thirty  miles  broad 
from  the  New  York  state  line  to  the  vicinity  of  Portland,  Maine. 
It  rises  gently  inland  to  the  higher  elevations  of  the  eastern 
highland  of  Massachusetts  and  Connecticut.  Within  this  re- 
gion New  England  agriculture  had  its  inception  and  has  been 
maintained  for  over  two  and  a  half  centuries. 

A  line  drawn  irregularly  from  the  Blue  Hills,  south  of  Bos- 
ton, to  the  northeastern  corner  of  Rhode  Island  will  mark  the 
western  limits  of  the  southern  extension  of  this  division.  From 
Boston  harbor  it  is  continued  as  a  broad  crescent  past  the 
mouth  of  the  Merrimac  river  to  the  vicinity  of  Portland.  In 
extreme  southeastern  Maine  it  again  appears  in  the  vicinity 
of  Eastport. 

The  eastern  highland  consists  of  a  series  of  nearly  parallel 
rock  ridges  extending  from  near  the  Connecticut  coast  north- 
eastward into  southern  New  Hampshire  and  southeastern 
Maine.  Near  the  sea,  these  ridges  are  low  and  are  interrupted 
so  that  they  form  a  chain  of  hills  rather  than  a  mountain  range. 
Farther  to  the  westward  the  ridges  are  more  nearly  continuous, 
and  they  rise  to  greater  elevations  in  succession  as  the  western 
border  of  the  section  is  approached. 

The  Connecticut  valley  is  not  primarily  a  river  valley,  but  a 
broad  basin  occupied  in  part  by  the  present  course  of  the 
Connecticut  river.  The  stream  however  leaves  the  valley  near 
Middletown,  Conn.,  and  has  cut  a  steep-sided  gorge  through 
the  eastern  highlands.  The  rocks  of  the  Connecticut  basin  differ 
from  those  of  a  majority  of  the  other  sections  of  New  Eng- 
land in  that  they  consist  of  bedded  sandstones  and  shales,  with 
intrusions  and  sheets  of  the  basaltic  rocks  which  form  the 
mountain  ranges  within  the  valley  proper.  The  sandstones  and 
shales  are  generally  red  and  give  a  distinct  color  to  the  later 
deposits  into  which  they  have  been  re-worked.  The  Connecti- 
cut river  is  itself  bordered  by  long,  narrow  stretches  of  meadow 

[  174  ] 


Soils  of  New  England 

land  throughout  the  greater  part  of  its  course.  The  meadows 
are  overflowed  from  time  to  time,  but  are  tilled  and  used  for 
the  production  of  farm  crops. 

To  the  west  of  the  valley,  the  highlands  are  covered  with 
soils  of  direct  glacial  origin,  and  only  in  the  narrow  stream 
valleys  are  there  any  large  deposits  of  stratified  glacial  drift. 
The  limestone  valleys  are,  on  the  other  hand,  floored  with  the 
limestone  and  marble  rock,  and  have  considerable  accumula- 
tions of  glacial  drift  and  extensive  plains  consisting  of  the 
same  drift  re-worked  by  water  and  laid  down  as  sand-plains. 

In  both  of  the  highland  areas,  there  is  a  considerable  pro- 
portion of  the  land  surface  which  is  unfitted  by  reason  of  its 
roughness  and  steep  slopes  for  agricultural  occupation.  Such 
land  now  bears  a  thin  covering  of  forest  or  is  grown  up  to 
brushy  soft-woods  which  have  replaced  the  earlier  timber 
growths. 

In  general,  the  soils  of  the  lower  elevations  along  the  coast 
of  New  England  consist  of  the  sorted  and  stratified  outwash 
materials  from  the  glacial  streams.  Such  deposits  rise  to  alti- 
tudes of  over  one  hundred  feet  along  the  southern  coast  of 
Connecticut,  but  are  interrupted  both  by  rock  ledges  and 
by  low  till-covered  hills.  In  southern  Maine  the  outwash  ma- 
terials give  place  to  distinctly  stratified  marine  deposits,  which 
are  heavy  clays  and  silty  loams,  thus  contrasting  strongly 
with  the  more  gravelly  and  sandy  materials  of  the  southern 
locations. 

The  higher  levels  of  the  coastal  region  are  occupied  by  low 
rounded  hills  of  till  or  of  rock,  covered  by  the  glacial  till. 
There  are  also,  in  the  vicinity  of  Plymouth,  Mass.,  long,  rough, 
stony  ridges,  made  up  of  sand,  gravel  and  stone,  and  inter- 
spersed with  deep  depressions  and  kettle-like  hollows. 

Throughout  the  eastern  highland  the  ridges  consist  of  rock 
either  thinly  or  thickly  veneered  with  glacial  deposits.  This 
material,  in  general,  has  a  close  relationship  in  mineralogical 
composition  to  the  rock  over  which  it  lies,  but  is  also  affected 
by  contributions  from  other  rock  formations  adjoining.  The 
depth  of  soil  covering  may  vary  from  a  foot  or  two  to  a  thick- 
ness of  fifty  feet  or  more.  In  fact,  in  single  upland  fields  there 

[  175] 


New  England 

will  be  outcrops  of  rock  ledges  and  soil  areas  where  the  com- 
bined depth  of  soil  and  subsoil  exceeds  fifty  feet.  There  are 
also  in  this  region  small  local  areas  where  the  glacial  waters 
have  deposited  local  areas  of  outwash  material.  Both  the  lower 
coastal  region  and  the  eastern  highlands  contain  many  small 
lakes  and  ponds,  and  nearly  all  of  the  larger  rivers  are  bor- 
dered by  fresh- water  swamps  and  low  meadow  lands.  There  are 


WELLESLEY  FARMS  STATION,  ON    THE  BOSTON  &   ALBANY  RAILROAD 

also  considerable  areas  of  tide-marsh  awaiting  reclamation 
near  the  mouths  of  the  principal  rivers  and  elsewhere  along 
the  coast. 

The  soils  of  the  northern  portion  of  the  Connecticut  basin 
consist  of  low,  moist,  silty  terraces  along  the  immediate  stream 
banks ;  of  brown  sandy  loams  upon  the  lower  terraces ;  of  yel- 
low sandy  and  gravelly  loams  upon  the  higher  terraces  and  in 
positions  where  tributary  streams  have  debouched  into  the  main 
valley.  Above  these  outwash  materials  there  rise  low,  rounded 
domes  of  glacial  till  whose  soils  are  prevailingly  red  and 
are  interspersed  with  large  and  small  fragments  of  sandstone 

r  176  1 


Soils  of  New  England 

and  shale.  All  of  the  highest  elevations  consist  of  the  rocky 
ridges  of  trap  and  basalt  such  as  are  found  in  Mount  Tom  and 
West  Rock.  South  of  the  general  region  of  Wethersfield  the 
soils  of  the  Connecticut  basin  are  strongly  influenced  by  the 
underlying  red  sandstones  and  shales  and  vary  in  color  from 
Indian  red  to  a  light  salmon.  They  consist  at  the  lower  eleva- 
tions of  distinctly  stratified  sandy  and  gravelly  loams,  and  at 
the  higher  elevations  of  glacial  till  like  that  of  the  low  hills  of 
the  more  northern  portion  of  the  valley.  The  southern  portion 
of  the  western  highland  is  less  rough  and  more  plateau-like 
than  the  more  northern  region,  and  a  larger  proportion  of  its 
surface  is  given  over  to  tillage. 

The  great  limestone  valley,  extending  from  New  Canaan, 
Conn.,  to  Pittsfield,  Mass.,  and  thence  past  North  Adams  and 
Bennington  to  the  Champlain  region,  is  both  a  notable  topo- 
graphic feature  and  a  distinct  soil  and  agricultural  region. 
Though  all  of  the  section  has  been  glaciated,  there  is  a  distinct 
influence  exerted  upon  the  soils  by  the  underlying  limestones, 
and  a  resultant  effect  is  produced  in  the  increased  natural 
fertility  of  the  soils.  Even  the  outwash  materials  of  the  south- 
ern part  of  this  valley  contain  a  considerable  proportion  of 
limestone  pebbles  and  are  thus  favorably  influenced. 

All  of  the  major  streams  of  New  England  have  built  up 
their  own  systems  of  terraces,  on  a  smaller  scale  than  those  of 
the  Connecticut  valley,  but  still  comprising  in  the  aggregate 
thousands  of  acres  of  comparatively  level  and  stone-free  ter- 
race soils.  The  Merrimac  river,  the  Concord  and  its  tributaries, 
the  Kennebec  and  the  Penobscot,  have  all  formed  greater  or 
less  terrace  areas.  In  general,  the  soils  of  these  terrace  areas 
are  a  brown  sand  or  sandy  loam  underlaid  by  yellow  sand  and 
interstratified  gravels.  Where  these  terraces  are  not  too  porous 
and  leachy  they  are  carefully  and  profitably  farmed. 

One  of  the  latest  stages  of  soil  formation  in  New  England 
was  a  partial  submergence  of  the  immediate  coast  country 
which  gave  rise  to  stiff  clays,  silt  loams,  and  heavy  loams  such 
as  are  found  in  the  vicinity  of  Portland,  Bangor,  Machias,  and 
Eastport,  Maine.  The  surface  soils  of  this  group  are  univer- 
sally gray  to  drab,  and  the  subsoils  are  brown  to  gray.  They 

[  177  ] 


New  England 

are  compact  and  even  too  retentive  of  moisture.  Somewhat 
similar  soils  extend  down  the  St.  Lawrence  drainage  basin  to 
the  Champlain  valley  and  form  extensive  areas  in  northwestern 
Vermont. 

The  soils  of  northeastern  Maine  differ  from  any  which  have 
yet  been  examined  in  other  portions  of  the  New  England 
states.  They  have  been  formed  from  the  glaciation  of  calcare- 
ous rocks  and  of  sandstones  and  shales.  The  result  has  been  the 
formation  of  fine-grained  loams  and  fine  sandy  loams  which 
are  essentially  calcareous.  The  surface  soils  are  brown  and 
well  charged  with  organic  matter,  and  under  the  existing  cli- 
matic conditions  these  soils  have  come  to  possess  a  national 
reputation  for  the  production  of  potatoes. 

Such  a  brief  resume  of  the  soils  of  New  England  is  inade- 
quate to  give  any  detailed  information  as  to  the  individual 
types  of  soil  in  any  particular  section,  but  it  will  be  seen  at 
a  glance  that  practically  all  classes  and  varieties  of  soil  are  to 
be  found  within  the  borders  of  the  New  England  states,  and 
that  as  a  consequence  the  opportunities  for  agricultural  ac- 
tivity and  development  are  varied  and  abundant.  On  account 
of  the  variety  of  soil  within  its  limits  it  is  essential  that  the 
further  development  of  New  England  agriculture  be  away 
from  the  field  of  general  farming  toward  the  more  accurate 
practices  of  specialized  crops,  which  shall  take  into  account  the 
variety  of  soils  with  which  each  farm  of  any  size  is  blessed,  and 
which  shall  utilize  to  its  fullest  account  the  special  properties 
of  each  particular  soil.  The  segregation  of  special  agricultural 
industries  has  just  begun  in  New  England.  The  region  had  to 
learn  the  lesson  that  upon  varied  and  uneven  soils  it  is  not 
possible  to  compete  with  level  and  uniform  prairie  areas  in  the 
production  of  the  cereal  grains  and  the  forage  crops.  Not  even 
when  the  average  yields  per  acre  exceed  those  of  the  prairie 
states  can  the  New  England  farmer  afford  to  compete,  since 
his  fields  are  small,  not  well  adapted  to  the  use  of  power  ma- 
chinery, nor  sufficiently  uniform  in  soil  to  produce  the  same 
crop  with  equal  success  over  even  a  small  field. 


[  178  ] 


Forestry  in  New  England 

No  question  is  of  greater  economic  importance  in  its  re- 
lation to  the  future  development  of  New  England  than  for- 
estry. There  is  no  enterprise  in  which  we  can  embark  which 
offers  greater  possibilities  of  establishing  permanent  prosper- 
ity than  the  clothing  of  our  non-agricultural  lands  with  com- 
mercial trees,  and  the  proper  conservation  of  the  forests  now 
left  to  us.  From  every  section  of  the  land  come  indications  of 
the  ever-widening  interest  taken  by  people  in  this  important 
matter. 

The  economic  importance  of  forestry  to  New  England  may 
be  discussed  from  three  standpoints :  First,  its  attractiveness 
as  an  investment  sure  to  yield  good  returns  to  the  investor 
and  also  to  furnish  the  timber  supply  for  the  future ;  second, 
its  influence  upon  the  flow  of  rivers  that  furnish  power  to  our 
great  manufacturing  industries  ;  third,  its  importance  from  an 
esthetic  standpoint. 

For  several  years  many  thinking  persons  all  over  the  land 
have  viewed  with  alarm  the  rapid  disappearance  of  our  forests 
that  have,  to  satisfy  the  desires  of  man  for  immediate  gain,  been 
cut  and  marketed  without  apparently  a  thought  for  the  timber 
supply  of  the  future.  As  a  result  of  this  there  are  in  Massa- 
chusetts today  approximately  one  million  acres  of  barren, 
desolate  land  now  absolutely  idle.  These  acres  may  again  be 
made  to  produce  timber  to  the  value  of  millions  of  dollars.  Not 
only  is  this  true  of  Massachusetts  but  similar  conditions  exist 
in  the  other  New  England  states.  New  England  is  today  one  of 
the  great  industrial  arenas  of  the  world.  From  the  earliest 
days  of  our  settlement  down  to  the  present  time  the  water- 
powers  supplied  by  the  rivers  and  streams  have  been  utilized, 
and  have  been  made  an  important  factor  in  the  development 
of  the  strength  and  prosperity  of  not  only  the  New  England 
states  but  of  the  entire  country.  Any  agency  which  threatens 

I  179  ] 


'New  England 

to  destroy  or  injure  them  should  be  looked  upon  with  alarm 
and  speedily  eliminated.  It  has  been  demonstrated  by  the 
greatest  engineers  in  the  world  that  forests  play  an  impor- 
tant role  in  the  regulation  of  rivers.  They  retain  for  some  time 
the  rainfall  and  lessen  the  violence  of  flood  flow.  Wherever 
forests  have  been  destroyed  stream-flow  has  become  more  ir- 
regular and  floods  have  increased  in  number  and  violence.  So 
important  is  it  considered  to  preserve  and  perpetuate  the  forests 
upon  the  watersheds  of  the  rivers  of  New  England  that  when 
the  so-called  White  Mountain  Reserve  bill  was  under  consid- 
eration by  the  Congressional  Committee  on  Agriculture,  scores 
of  men  representing  our  great  manufacturing  interests  ap- 
peared before  the  committee  and  urged  the  necessity  of  prompt 
and  favorable  action.  Their  testimony  relative  to  the  conse- 
quential damage  sure  to  follow  the  clearing  of  the  forest 
growth  from  these  mountain  slopes  was  decidedly  startling. 
It  had  the  support  of  not  only  the  manufacturers  who  recog- 
nize how  essential  are  the  forests  to  the  preservation  of  the 
waterpowers  that  operate  the  great  manufacturing  plants  of 
New  England,  but  also  of  other  people  from  other  sections  of 
the  country  who  protested  against  despoiling  the  mountains 
of  their  grand  scenic  beauty.  That  there  is  a  vast  economic 
reason  for  jealously  guarding  our  scenic  heritages  in  New 
England  is  shown  by  the  fact  that  the  state  of  New  Hamp- 
shire alone  derives  a  yearly  revenue  of  nearly  $10,000,000 
from  the  thousands  of  visitors  who  annually  throng  there  to 
enjoy  the  natural  beauty  of  its  scenery  and  its  invigorating 
climate.  A  state  thus  favored  can  ill  afford  to  countenance 
any  policy  which  endangers  what  may  be  termed  one  of  its 
most  valuable  assets.  With  the  opportunity  before  us  of  add- 
ing immeasurably  to  our  wealth,  it  behooves  every  citizen  who 
has  the  welfare  of  New  England  at  heart,  and  who  desires  to 
see  it  continue  to  enjoy  all  the  elements  of  power  that  have 
distinguished  it  in  the  past,  to  lend  his  best  endeavors  to  the 
promotion  and  perpetuation  of  forestry. 

The  supply  or  constancy  of  the  flow  of  water  in  the  rivers 
is  not  the  only  element  of  importance  in  the  forestry  question, 
and  in  view  of  the  difference  of  opinion  about  that  matter,  and 

[  180] 


Forestry  in  New  England 

the  present  impossibility  of  verifying  the  views  of  either  party, 
it  is  perhaps  not  the  most  important.  The  question  of  the  in- 
dustrial importance  of  lumber  is  one  about  which  there  can  be 
no  two  opinions,  though  in  this  Professor  Moore  perceives  a  cer- 
tain element  of  doubt  and  uncertainty,  as  he  observes  that  the 
progress  in  building  indicates  that  the  use  of  wood  will  steadily 
decrease  until  it  will  be  chiefly  employed  for  ornamentation 
purposes ;  and  of  course  when  that  time  comes  there  will  be 
less  demand  for  lumber  and  consequently  the  forests  will 
shrink  as  an  industrial  asset.  This  is  a  pretty  far  cry  how- 
ever, and  even  if  we  grant  that  less  wood  will  be  used  in  build- 
ing operations  it  is  evident  that  the  volume  of  wood  used  in 
the  industries  and  the  arts  will  not  on  that  account  be  greatly 
diminished.  It  is  likely  to  be  increased,  as  when  one  avenue  of 
consumption  is  closed  several  others  will  surely  open.  There  is 
nothing  in  present  industrial  conditions  to  justify  any  fear 
that  the  gross  consumption  of  wood  will  diminish,  but  there 
are  many  considerations  which  point  to  the  steady  increase  of 
its  use.  The  forests  are  therefore  of  the  greatest  industrial 
importance,  and  it  is  evident  that  for  the  man  who  desires  to 
make  wise  provision  for  his  children  no  better  proposition 
exists  than  the  utilization  of  his  non-agricultural  lands  in  the 
planting  of  commercial  trees.  Let  us  suppose,  for  example, 
that  a  farmer,  who  has  a  ten-acre  lot  of  absolutely  nonpro- 
ductive land  which  the  assessors  value  at  $4  per  acre,  plants 
it  with  white  pine,  at  a  cost  of  $10  per  acre.  At  the  end  of 
forty  years  he  or  his  children  will  have  325,000  feet  of  lumber, 
valued  on  the  stump  at  present  prices  at  $2600.  These  figures 
of  yield  are  taken  from  tables  prepared  under  the  direction  of 
the  state  forester  of  Massachusetts,  Prof.  F.  W.  Rane,  after 
an  investigation  of  growing  stands  made  all  over  the  State. 
Under  good  forestry  management  through  thinnings  and  other 
cuttings  this  yield  could  be  increased.  In  the  meantime  however 
he  will  have  paid  out  for  taxes,  supposing  the  rate  to  be  $20 
per  $1000  of  the  valuation  on  both  land  and  timber,  about 
$175.  His  total  investment  is  therefore  $285.  If  he  had  put 
this  in  the  savings  bank  and  obtained  four  percent  compound 
interest  on  it,  at  the  end  of  forty  years  he  would  have  $1368 

[  181  ] 


WHITE  PINES  FORTY  YfARS  OLD,  IN  CARVER,  MASS. 


Forestry  in  New  England 

to  his  credit,  or  about  one-half  what  his  woodlot  will  net  him. 
One  must  remember  also  that  the  farmers'  returns  are  based 
on  the  present  rate  of  stumpage.  What  they  will  be  in  forty 
years  no  one  can  accurately  forecast,  but  it  is  safe  to  predict 
that  they  will  be  at  least  double  the  present  price.  Stumpage 
prices  in  Europe  are  now  two  to  four  times  the  rate  paid  in 
New  England.  The  New  England  grower  of  lumber  may  find 
a  sufficient  guaranty  against  injurious  competition  in  the  fact 
that  the  freight  rate  of  $20  per  thousand  feet  on  pine  from 
the  northwestern  country  renders  it  impossible  for  it  to  be 
sold  at  a  profit  in  eastern  markets  for  anything  less  than  $30 
per  thousand.  The  freight  rates  on  hard  woods  used  by  our 
manufacturing  industries,  that  are  much  heavier  than  pine, 
are  correspondingly  high.  There  is  a  steadily  increasing  de- 
mand for  all  forest  products,  both  hard  and  soft,  and  the  man 
who  has  a  supply  of  either  will  find  a  ready  market  at  profit- 
able prices.  Of  course,  it  is  quite  obvious  that  in  order  to  ob- 
tain the  most  satisfactory  results  every  principle  of  modern 
forestry  must  be  applied  to  the  management  of  the  land,  the 
growth  must  be  protected  from  the  ravages  of  insect  pests,  and 
every  reasonable  measure  of  precaution  adopted  to  prevent 
fires. 

It  is  difficult  to  realize  what  this  means  as  a  potential  asset 
for  New  England.  If  there  are  a  million  acres  available  for  for- 
estry in  Massachusetts  it  is  surely  conservative  to  assume  that 
there  are  two  and  a  half  millions  in  New  England.  The  other 
states  do  not  give  us  figures,  and  we  are  compelled  to  estimate. 
But  two  and  a  half  million  acres  is  doubtless  far  under  the 
fact.  Let  us  also  assume  that  the  selling  price  of  pine  will  have 
doubled  in  the  next  forty  years,  and  compute  the  value  of  this 
unused  and  now  worthless  land  forty  years  hence,  if  it  could 
all  be  planted  to  pines  at  once.  The  timber  on  it  would  be  worth 
no  less  than  $1,228,750,000.  This  is  a  pretty  tidy  sum.  It  is 
not  likely  that  more  than  a  small  proportion  of  this  land  will 
be  planted  to  pine,  but  it  is  a  gratifying  fact  that  many  thou- 
sand acres  are  annually  planted.  Let  us  suppose  a  more  sup- 
posable  case,  for  example:  Suppose  that  a  farmer  had  100 
acres  suitable  for  pine  planting,  and  planted  it  in  1910.  In 

F  183  1 


New  England 

1950  his  heirs,  or  the  owners  of  his  farm,  will  be  able  to  mar- 
ket 3,250,000  feet  of  pine  lumber,  which  will  doubtless  be 
worth  $52,000,  and  the  cost  to  him  will  have  been  about 
$1750,  in  taxes  and  labor.  In  other  words,  for  the  expenditure 
of  $44  a  year  for  forty  years  the  man  with  100  acres  in  pine 
adds  $1300  a  year  to  the  value  of  his  farm.  This  is  at  the  rate 
of  about  300  percent.  It  seems  to  be  quite  a  profitable  business, 
this  business  of  reclaiming  the  land  that  has  been  cut  over  for 
the  timber.  Even  if  we  concede  that  there  will  be  no  increase 
in  the  selling  price  of  pine  lumber  during  the  next  forty  years, 
it  is  shown  that  a  man  who  goes  intelligently  into  reforestation 
may  earn  150  percent  on  all  the  money  he  is  obliged  to  ex- 
pend. How  small  the  Wall  Street  profits  seem  when  compared 
with  what  the  land  will  yield  if  properly  worked  and  treated ! 
The  work  of  reforestation  as  conducted  by  State  Forester 
Rane  in  Massachusetts  presents  an  object  lesson  of  great  value 
and  serves  to  educate  landowners  to  a  realization  of  their  op- 
portunities. The  state  forester  stands  ready  at  all  times  to 
furnish  scientific  foresters  to  examine  the  forest  lands  of  the 
State,  both  public  and  private,  and  to  give  expert  advice  as 
to  the.ir  management.  The  ultimate  aim  must  be  to  cut -no 
more  from  forests  than  they  produce  each  year,  and  to  make 
their  yearly  growth  equal  to  the  needs  of  the  people.  When 
this  condition  has  been  reached,  forestry  in  New  England  will 
have  attained  the  fullest  measure  of  success.  During  the  tree- 
planting  season  of.  1910  the  Massachusetts  Forestry  depart- 
ment planted  nearly  1000  acres  of  unused  land,  of  which  it  has 
become  the  owner  in  the  name  of  the  Commonwealth,  with  vari- 
ous kinds  of  seedlings  of  the  coniferous  family.  It  required 
nearly  1,000,000  plants  to  cover  the  area.  Some  of  these  plants 
were  raised  at  the  department's  own  nurseries  and  others  were 
imported  from  France.  The  expense  to  the  Commonwealth, 
which  is  limited  by  statute,  has  been  about  $10,000.  This  was 
the  second  year  of  the  State's  real  reforestation  policy.  The 
work  has  been  reduced  to  more  economical  business  principles. 
The  average  cost,  counting  the  cost  of  the  plants  and  the  cost 
of  labor  and  supervision,  was  less  than  $10  per  acre,  while  the 
previous  year  it  was  a  little  more.  Summing  up  what  has  been 

[  184  ] 


Forestry  in  New  England 

accomplished  in  two  years  in  reforestation  work,  the  State 
owns  about  2000  acres  of  pine,  spruce  and  ash  plantations, 
which  have  cost  it  about  $20,000  above  the  nominal  price  it 
has  paid  for  some  of  the  land.  By  authority  if  the  legislature, 
the  state  forester  may  accept  land,  or  buy  at  the  rate  of  not 
more  than  $5  per  acre,  on  conditions  which  favor  both  the 
original  owner  and  the  State.  To  the  owner  is  reserved  the 
right  to  buy  the  property  back  within  ten  years  for  the  amount 
that  the  State  has  spent  on  it,  but  if  there  is  no  reconveyance 
inside  of  the  ten-year  period  it  becomes  the  absolute  property 
of  the  Commonwealth.  Data  about  what  has  been  done  in  the 
other  New  England  states  is  not  available,  as  they  do  not 
make  their  work  public  through  annual  reports  of  the  proper 
officials.  Much  work  is  being  done  in  New  Hampshire  by  pri- 
vate owners,  and  in  both  New  Hampshire  and  Maine  the  great 
paper  companies  and  the  railroads  are  doing  a  great  amount 
of  work,  both  in  the  way  of  actual  planting  of  forests  and  en- 
couraging private  owners  to  do  so.  The  work  is  likely  to  de- 
velop rapidly  in  Massachusetts,  as  the  people  of  that  State 
are  more  hospitable  to  public  work  paid  for  out  of  taxation, 
as  is  evidenced  by  the  work  of  the  park,  water,  sewerage  and 
other  commissions. 

Commercial  forestry  is  too  young  in  America  to  have  de- 
veloped actual  results  that  can  be  used  as  concrete  arguments 
in  favor  of  the  work.  We  are  obliged  to  reply  upon  theory  or 
the  experience  of  foreign  countries  that  have  been  in  this  re- 
spect wiser  than  we.  Germany  furnishes  the  best  example  now 
available,  and  we  extract  some  of  the  facts  about  that  country 
from  a  recent  document  issued  from  the  Massachusetts  For- 
estry department.  The  German  empire  has  nearly  35,000,000 
acres  of  forest,  of  which  31.9  percent  belongs  to  the  state,  1.8 
percent  to  the  crown,  16.1  percent  to  communities,  46.5  per- 
cent to  private  persons,  1.6  percent  to  corporations,  and  the 
remainder  to  institutions  and  associations.  There  is  a  little 
over  three-fifths  of  an  acre  of  forest  for  each  citizen,  and, 
though  53  cubic  feet  of  wood  to  the  acre  are  produced  in  a 
year,  wood  imports  have  increasingly  exceeded  wood  exports 
for  over  forty  years.  German  forestry  is  remarkable  in  three 

[  185  1 


Forestry  in  New  England 

ways :  It  has  always  led  in  scientific  thoroughness,  and  now  it 
is  working  out  results  with  an  exactness  almost  equal  to  that 
of  the  laboratory ;  it  has  applied  this  scientific  knowledge  with 
the  greatest  technical  success;  and  it  has  solved  the  problem 
of  securing  through  a  long  series  of  years  an  increasing  forest 
output  and  increasing  profits  at  the  same  time.  Like  other  ad- 
vanced European  countries,  Germany  felt  the  pinch  of  wood 
shortage  a  hundred  and  fifty  years  ago,  and,  though  this 
shortage  was  relieved  by  the  coming  of  the  railroads,  which 
opened  new  forests,  and  by  the  use  of  coal,  which  substituted 
a  new  fuel  for  wood,  the  warning  was  heeded,  and  systematic 
state  forestry  was  begun. 

Each  state  of  the  German  Federation  administers  its  own 
forests.  All  of  the  states  practice  forestry  with  success.  The 
results  obtained  by  Prussia  and  Saxony  are  particularly  in- 
teresting, for  they  show  how  forests  may  be  kept  constantly 
improving  under  a  system  of  management  which  yields  a 
handsome  profit.  The  Prussian  forests,  covering  nearly  7,000,- 
000  acres,  are  made  up  much  as  if  we  should  combine  the 
pineries  of  the  southern  states  with  the  forests  of  some  of  our 
middle  and  central  states.  When  forestry  was  begun,  a  great 
part  of  them  had  been  injured  by  mismanagement,  much  as 
our  forests  have  been,  and  the  Prussian  foresters  had  to  solve 
the  problem  of  improving  the  run-down  forests  out  of  the  re- 
turns from  those  which  were  still  in  good  condition.  The  method 
of  management  adopted  calls  for  a  sustained  yield  —  that  is, 
no  more  wood  is  cut  than  the  forest  produces.  Under  this  man- 
agement the  growth  of  the  forest,  and  consequently  the  amount 
cut,  has  risen  sharply.  In  1830  the  yield  was  20  cubic  feet  per 
acre;  in  1865,  24  cubic  feet;  in  1890,  52  cubic  feet;  and  in 
1904,  65  cubic  feet.  In  other  words,  Prussian  forest  manage- 
ment has  multiplied  the  rate  of  production  threefold  in  seventy- 
five  years.  And  the  quality  of  the  product  has  improved  with 
the  quantity.  Between  1830  and  1904  the  percentage  of  saw 
timber  rose  from  19  percent  to  54  percent.  The  financial  re- 
turns in  Prussia  make  an  even  better  showing.  Net  returns  per 
acre  in  1850  were  28  cents.  In  1865  they  were  72  cents;  in 
1900,  $1.58;  and  in  1904,  $2.50.  They  are  now  nearly  ten 

f  187  1 


New  England 

times  what  they  were  sixty  years  ago,  and  they  are  increasing 
more  rapidly  than  ever.  In  Saxony,  which  has  about  430,000 
acres  of  state  forests,  the  increase  of  cut  under  forest  manage- 
ment, which  always  means  also  a  corresponding  increase  in 
wood  produced,  has  been  nearly  as  marked  as  in  Prussia.  The 
yield  rose  55  percent  between  1820  and  1904,  and  is  now  93 
cubic  feet  per  acre — greater  than  that  of  the  Prussian  forests. 
Since  the  chief  wood  is  spruce,  which  yields  more  saw  timber 
than  the  average  of  trees  making  up  the  Prussian  forests,  the 
increase  in  the  percentage  of  saw  timber  in  Saxony  naturally 
exceeds  the  increase  in  Prussia.  It  increased  from  26  percent 
in  1830  to  66  percent  in  1904.  The  net  yearly  revenue  is  $5.30 
per  acre.  The  yearly  expense  is  $3  per  acre.  Other  German 
states,  smaller,  and  with  better  kinds  of  timber  and  better 
market  facilities,  secure  even  higher  returns.  The  forests  of 
Wiirttemberg  yield  a  net  annual  revenue  of  nearly  $6  per  acre, 
and  those  of  several  smaller  administrations  do  even  better.  A 
number  of  the  private  forests  of  Germany  are  managed  with 
great  success.  As  a  result  of  a  canvas  of  15,600,000  acres  of 
state,  municipal,  and  private  forests,  it  was  found  that  the  av- 
erage net  revenue  per  acre,  from  good,  bad,  and  indifferent 
land,  was  $2.40  a  year. 


188 


New  England  Workmen 

NEW  ENGLAND  is  a  reservoir  of  skilled  workmen  in  several 
of  those  branches  of  manufacture  in  which  the  skill  amounts 
to  the  largest  proportion  of  the  cost  of  production.  Not  only 
is  this  true,  and  constituting  one  of  the  most  important  of 
the  assets  of  the  section,  but  there  are  several  attributes  of 
New  England  men  which  greatly  enhance  its  importance,  as 
compared  with  the  workmen  of  some  other  sections.  In  New 
England  in  a  greater  degree  than  elsewhere  there  persists 
that  characteristic  of  thoroughness  plus  knowledge,  because 
it  is  here  that  the  manufacturing  of  the  country  was  given  its 
start,  and  under  the  now  almost  extinct  apprentice  system. 
This  system  trained  men  in  all  the  branches  of  a  craft  or  a 
business,  as  opposed  to  the  present  habit  of  specializing. 
The  old  New  England  machinist  could  do  all  the  work  done 
in  the  shop.  The  new  variety  of  machinist  is  able  to  operate 
a  lathe,  it  may  be,  or  a  planer;  or  he  is  able  to  erect  the 
machine  after  all  the  parts  have  been  turned  out  by  specialists 
and  assembled  in  his  room.  But  none  of  these  men  are  able 
to  go  into  any  department  of  the  shop  and  make  any  part  of 
the  machine.  The  old-time  New  England  machinist  could  do 
this,  and  there  are  many  of  his  breed  still  extant,  and  in  many 
parts  of  New  England,  and  in  some  of  the  trades,  this  com- 
prehensive training  still  is  in  force.  It  is  the  same  in  all  other 
trades  and  crafts.  The  old-time  New  England  dentist,  for 
example,  performed  all  the  work  necessary  to  keep  the  mouths 
of  his  patients  in  good  condition.  He  extracted,  filled,  and 
made  the  sets  of  artificial  teeth.  Now  practically  none  do  this. 
The  specialist  extracts,  the  specialist  fills,  and  the  specialist 
makes  the  artificial  sets.  Scarcely  any,  even  in  the  country 
towns,  performs  all  of  these  operations.  The  local  dentist 
examines  the  patient,  sends  him  to  a  specialist  to  have  the 
old  teeth  extracted,  makes  the  impression  for  the  new  set,  but 

[  189  1 


New  England 

sends  the  mold  to  the  city  specialist  to  have  the  teeth  made. 
The  printer  of  today  is  generally  not  a  printer  at  all,  but  a 
typesetter,  a  stoneman,  a  pressman,  etc.  In  the  old  time,  and 
not  so  very  many  years  ago,  the  shoemaker  was  a  man  who 
measured  the  foot  and  made  the  boots  or  shoes  entirely  in 
his  own  shop,  with  his  own  hands,  and  from  stock  he  had  on 
hand.  Now  there  are  no  shoemakers,  in  this  sense.  The  shoe 
is  made  by  automatic  machinery,  and  the  men  and  women 
and  children  who  operate  the  machines  know  nothing  about 
shoemaking,  in  the  thorough  sense  their  fathers  knew  about 
it.  They  know  how  to  feed  the  material  to  the  particular 
machine  they  have  been  trained  to  feed.  They  cannot  cut  or 
fit  the  stock,  nor  can  they  perform  any  of  the  subsequent 
operations  after  the  pieces  have  left  their  bench  or  stand. 

This  is  a  necessary  condition.  It  prevails  in  New  England 
as  elsewhere.  But  in  New  England  the  condition  is  amelio- 
rated by  the  fact  that  here  there  is  a  greater  percentage  of 
workmen  who  were  educated  in  the  old  thorough  manner  and 
who  do  know  the  trade  at  which  they  work.  They  are  obliged 
to  stand  and  feed  the  automatic  machines,  even  as  do  the 
younger  and  less  well-trained  operatives,  but  it  is  certain  that 
there  is  that  in  their  work  which  gives  it  a  definite  value. 
The  man  who  knows  how  to  make  the  whole  shoe  can  run 
the  pegging  machine  or  the  sewing  machine  or  the  treeing 
machine  better  than  can  the  man  who  only  knows  how  to  run 
the  one  machine.  The  man  who  is  a  printer,  and  can  do  any 
and  all  of  the  various  kinds  of  work  that  go  into  the  finished 
piece,  is  a  better  compositor  than  the  man  or  girl  who  only 
knows  the  monotype  or  the  linotype  keyboard. 

In  all  the  trades  there  is  still  existing  in  New  England  a 
certain  generous  modicum  of  this  superior  skill  and  efficiency 
in  the  trades,  and  the  predisposition  to  continue  to  train  the 
young  to  the  broader  craftsmanship  is  more  evident  here  than 
elsewhere.  This  is  one  of  the  items  of  value  that  we  are  pos- 
sessed of  which  means  much  to  the  manufacturers  in  the  way 
of  dividends  as  well  as  in  the  way  of  quality  of  goods.  It  is 
not  likely  that  this  disposition  to  qualify  in  a  broad  and 
fundamental  way  will  diminish.  It  is  likely  to  increase.  The 

[  190] 


New  England  Workmen 

tendency  in  the  industrial  world  is  toward  better  training. 
This  tendency  is  as  much  in  evidence  in  other  sections  as  in 
New  England,  as  a  proposition.  It  is  as  a  matter  of  fact  much 
more  vital  in  New  England  than  elsewhere  because  it  so  per- 
fectly harmonizes  with  our  historical  and  hereditary  instincts 
and  habits.  It  is  deeply  seated  here  because  it  was  here  that  most 
of  the  industries  had  their  birth  and  achieved  their  adolescence. 
Another  very  important  racial  advantage  that  the  work- 
men of  New  England  offer  to  the  shrewd  manufacturer  is 
their  inveterate  love  for  their  own  homes.  It  is  a  very  manifest 
article  of  the  social  creed  of  the  New  Englander  that  he  must 
try  to  own  his  home.  The  roof  that  is  secured  by  a  quit-claim 
cr  warranty  deed  is  far  superior  to  the  roof  secured  merely 
by  the  payment  of  the  monthly  rent.  No  one  who  has  not 
been  brought  up  a  New  Englander  knows  how  strong  is  this 
instinct.  It  is  ingrained  in  our  very  nature.  It  does  not  matter 
that  the  owned  house  costs  more  to  maintain  than  the  rent  of 
one  as  good  in  all  particulars,  as  is  very  frequently  the  fact. 
It  does  not  matter  that  the  owning  of  the  home  involves  years 
of  the  most  rigid  economy,  the  denial  of  all  kinds  of  relaxa- 
tion and  luxury,  the  stunting  of  life  in  all  directions,  the 
dwarfing  of  the  children's  education  and  life,  the  narrowing 
of  all  the  amenities  and  the  squeezing  of  the  spirit.  The  home 
must  be  had,  and  had  it  is.  It  is  not  always  that  the  desire 
for  a  home  becomes  such  a  moloch ;  but  that  it  may.  and  often 
docs,  does  not  operate  to  check  the  passion  for  possession 
that  is  such  a  marked  New  England  trait.  Whatever  may  be 
the  sociological,  the  ethical,  the  religious,  significance  of  this 
passion  to  own  homes,  there  can  be  no  question  about  its 
being  a  great  industrial  asset  to  New  England.  The  man  who 
owns  a  home,  or  who  hopes  to  own  a  home,  is  a  stable  prop- 
osition as  an  operative.  This  is  one  of  those  manufacturing 
advantages  that  is  not  quite  susceptible  of  definite  valuation, 
but  it  is  being  carefully  considered  by  men  who  are  operating 
to  take  full  advantage  of  whatever  elements  in  industrial 
communities  promise  sure  if  slowly  maturing  profit-bringing. 
And  the  manufacturer  who  is  skilled  in  the  refinements  of 
his  business  knows  that  when  he  promotes  this  home-getting 


New  England  Workmen 

instinct  in  his  workmen,  and  makes  it  easy  for  them  to  anchor 
themselves  to  the  soil,  he  is  transferring  some  appreciable  por- 
tion of  his  cost  of  manufacture  to  the  land.  He  may  not  con- 
sider this  habit  of  owning  homes  as  an  element  that  can  be 
recognized  in  the  adjustment  of  his  wage  schedules,  but  he 
is  nevertheless  a  recipient  of  some  of  the  benefit.  The  factory 
operative  who  is  able  to  own  his  home,  and  a  patch  of  garden 
land  in  addition,  is  a  different  operative  from  the  man  who 
lives  in  the  mill  tenements  and  is  obliged  to  buy  all  of  his 
supplies,  and  possibly  at  the  mill  stores.  The  workman  who 
gives  such  hostages  to  fortune  as  are  represented  by  his  home 
and  his  garden  is  not  the  man  to  trifle  with  labor  conditions. 
He  needs  stable  conditions,  and  that  need  leads  him  to  be 
careful  of  his  chances  of  employment,  and  sometimes  to  con- 
sider the  rights  and  difficulties  of  the  manufacturer,  who  he 
realizes  is  taking  chances  quite  similar  to  those  that  have  now 
and  again  caused  him  sleepless  nights,  although  upon  a  vastly 
larger  scale.  This  condition  of  home-earning  is  a  large  ele- 
ment in  the  efficiency  of  workmen,  and  it  tends  strongly  and 
directly  to  increased  production  per  unit  of  wage.  It  is  not 
always  a  negligible  element  in  the  fixing  of  the  wage  scale, 
despite  the  fact  that  the  more  enlightened,  and  we  may  safely 
say  the  more  shrewd,  manufacturers  are  content  to  let  the 
workman  have  the  visible  advantage  and  accept  for  his  share 
the  less  tangible  but  really  far  more  consequential  benefit 
coming  from  the  increased  efficiency  of  the  home-owners. 

There  are  in  various  sections  of  New  England  areas  of  in- 
tensive trades  cultivation  which  has  been  going  on  for  several 
generations  and  which  furnish  facilities  for  certain  lines  of 
manufacture  that  are  unique.  In  fine  textiles  there  is  nowhere 
facilities  for  skilled  operatives  equal  to  those  offered  at  Man- 
chester, Lowell,  Providence  and  the  Blackstone  Valley,  and  in 
other  towns  and  cities.  The  valley  of  the  Blackstone  and  the 
valley  of  the  Merrimac  teem  with  these  skilled  workmen,  and 
they  are  found  at  Clinton  and  North  Adams,  and  in  many 
localities  in  Connecticut,  Massachusetts  and  New  Hampshire, 
while  Rhode  Island  is  full  of  them  in  all  directions.  In  several 
lines  of  metal  working  and  machinery  and  tool  making  there 

[  193  1 


New  England 

may  be  found  at  several  points  a  supply  of  trained  workmen 
who  do  not  owe  their  skill  wholly  to  their  own  training,  but 
partially  to  inheritance  and  the  influence  of  their  fathers  and 
grandfathers  all  through  their  adolescence.  They  were  born 
into  the  trades  they  have  always  followed,  and  have  a  certain 
skill  and  ability  that  is  often  thus  acquired  but  not  always 
resulting  from  personal  training.  The  same  may  be  said  of 
other  industries,  notably  of  the  shoe  and  leather  business. 
The  shoe  business  has  spread  to  the  Middle  West,  as  it  natu- 
rally must  be  expected  to.  The  raw  material  is  largely  pro- 
duced in  that  section  and  beyond,  and  a  large  proportion  of 
the  shoes  produced  in  New  England  are  yet  shipped  west- 
ward. There  is  therefore  the  best  of  economic  reasons  for  a 
certain  portion  of  the  shoemaking  business  to  find  its  way 
out  of  New  England.  The  flaw  in  the  argument  is  found  in 
the  lack  of  skilled  workmen  in  other  sections.  This  has,  in  a 
degree,  been  overcome  by  the  migration  of  some  New  England 
shoemakers  to  the  cities  where  the  industry  has  been  trans- 
planted. While  there  are  several  large  establishments  in  the 
large  cities  of  the  West,  from  which  merchandise  is  largely 
distributed,  there  is  no  general  tendency  in  the  trade  to  shift 
the  center  of  commercial  production.  On  the  other  hand,  there 
is  a  significant  drift  back  to  New  England  of  the  shoe  trade 
of  the  West.  At  least  one  of  the  largest  distributors  of  shoes 
in  the  country,  whose  headquarters  are  in  Chicago,  has 
brought  all  its  manufacturing  back  to  New  England,  for  the 
identical  reasons  set  forth  in  this  chapter  —  to  secure  stable 
labor  conditions,  and  to  avail  itself  of  the  stored  shoemaking 
facility  of  the  New  England  shoemakers.  It  would  be  easy 
to  cite  like  conditions  to  those  mentioned  as  applying  in  sev- 
eral other  trades.  In  some  of  them  it  appears  that  there  is 
what  amounts  to  an  unemployed  workman  power  which  might 
well  be  put  to  very  profitable  use.  In  the  woodworking  trades 
there  has  been  an  unwarranted  drift  away  from  New  Eng- 
land, due,  it  is  to  be  presumed,  to  the  exhaustion  of  the  supply 
of  lumber  in  New  England,  and  to  the  failure  to  reckon  the 
worth  of  the  workman  asset.  This  drift  has  been  going  on  for 
so  long  a  time  that  there  has  now  been  created  a  skilled  labor 

[  194  ] 


New  England  Workmen 

supply  at  or  near  the  raw  material  supply ;  and  the  skilled 
labor  supply  in  New  England  has  deteriorated,  through  death 
and  the  gradual  assimilation  of  the  workmen  by  other  occu- 
pations. But  there  is  a  large  body  of  these  operatives  that 
might  be  profitably  employed  at  the  trade  they  know  best. 
And  conditions  have  been  so  changing  that  it  is  again  within 
the  sphere  of  good  business  to  consider  whether  woodwork- 
ing may  not  be  resuscitated  in  New  England.  The  like  may 
be  said  of  certain  iron  industries.  There  are  iron  mines  in 
New  England  that  have  paid  for  working.  The  men  who  were 
trained  in  the  initial  iron  trades  have  pretty  well  disappeared, 
but  there  would  some  of  them  probably  be  found  in  the  re- 
gions of  the  old  mines. 

Mingled  with  the  influence  of  ancestry,  tradition,  educa- 
tion, religion,  and  the  other  elements  that  go  to  give  the  New 
England  workman  his  distinction,  there  is  the  powerful  influ- 
ence of  climate,  the  maligned  New  England  climate,  which  is 
contemned  and  slandered,  and  which  draws  millions  of  cash 
out  of  the  pockets  of  the  men  who  have  learned  to  justly  ap- 
praise it  for  the  privilege  of  enjoying  a  few  weeks  in  it  dur- 
ing each  year.  The  effect  of  climate  on  character  may  not 
have  become  one  of  the  studies  of  men  who  are  establishing 
factories  and  building  industries,  but  it  is  worth  while.  Cli- 
mate radically  affects  character,  and  character  and  physique 
are  at  the  bottom  of  good  workmen.  There  has  not  yet  arisen 
the  workman  who  is,  all  things  fairly  considered,  the  equal 
of  the  native  New  Englander.  The  climate  has  made  him  what 
he  is.  There  are  regions  that  have  better  winter  climate  than 
New  England,  and  there  are  sections  that  boast  better  sum- 
mer climate;  but  there  are  no  regions  in  America  that  have 
year-'round  climate  equal  to  that  of  New  England,  for  pleas- 
ure or  for  the  building  of  a  race  of  workmen  equal  to  the 
economic  demands  made  upon  them.  This  is  an  assertion  easy 
to  make,  and  perhaps  not  so  easy  to  prove.  If  proof  is  needed 
it  is  furnished  by  history.  This  section  of  New  England,  a 
small  bit  of  the  country  set  off  in  its  northeast  corner,  has 
for  all  the  time  since  the  landing  of  the  Pilgrims  given  of  its 
hardy  sons  the  men  who  have  built  up  the  whole  country,  and 

[  195  1 


New  England 

is  at  this  present  time  giving  an  almost  undiminished  stream 
of  the  brawn  and  brain  that  is  developing  the  vast  resources 
of  the  land.  Not  only  this :  New  England  has  all  the  time  been 
absorbing  the  dwarfed  and  anaemic  flood  from  Europe  and 
Asia  and  has  vitalized  that  alien  blood  until  it  is  almost  on  a 
par  with  the  native  stream.  This  is  a  performance  that  is 
unique  in  history,  and  it  deserves  much  more  attention  than 
it  has  received  at  the  hands  of  the  men  of  science  who  are 
prone  to  find  a  logical  and  analytic  reason  for  whatever  phe- 
nomenon they  observe.  What  is  it  in  New  England  that  takes 
the  dregs  of  Europe  and  makes  not  only  good  citizenship  of 
it  but  makes  of  it  good  physical  manhood?  It  is  not  all  cli- 
mate, but  it  is  the  climate  that  begins  the  work  and  furnishes 
the  human  caloric  for  its  continuance. 

The  respect  for  religion  which  obtains  in  New  England, 
the  veneration  for  education  and  culture,  the  traditional  bent 
for  esthetics,  for  ethics,  for  sociology,  for  science,  for  self- 
culture,  for  economy,  for  thrift,  all  tend,  and  strongly  tend, 
to  give  our  workmen  value  to  employers,  and  what  is  perhaps 
more  essential  in  an  industrial  sense,  these  things  give  the 
workmen  a  disposition  to  give  of  their  capacity  the  fair  equiv- 
alent for  the  wages  they  receive.  A  thorough  and  scientific 
study  of  the  New  England  workman  would  reveal  other 
grounds  for  claiming  for  him  that  superiority  he  has  always 
held,  and  would  make  it  more  evident  that  the  causes  here 
indicated  are  worthy  the  attention  of  the  large  employers  of 
labor  when  they  have  before  them  the  great  question  of  the 
most  economical  methods  and  the  most  advantageous  loca- 
tions for  their  manufactories. 


[  196  ] 


The  Industrial  Boston 

THIS  is  not  a  "  boom  "  story.  Neither  is  it  to  be  a  tedious, 
involved,  statistical  study.  Superlatives  seldom  convince  the 
discriminating  reader,  and  pages  of  figures,  compiled  for  a 
purpose,  weary  him.  A  loud  noise  and  much  kicking  up  of 
dust  will  not  command  the  attention  of  serious-minded 
people;  neither  will  the  laborious  piling  up  of  facts  as  to  its 
own  exceeding  excellence  profit  a  city  much,  because  few 
study  the  facts. 

Boston  does  not  need  publicity  of  either  sort.  Its  resources 
are  so  extensive,  and  its  possibilities  so  unmistakable  that  a 
plain,  unvarnished  statement  of  them  is  sufficient  to  insure 
their  recognition.  But  one  thing  which  is  needed,  and  that  im- 
peratively, is  a  correct  and  adequate  conception  as  to  what 
constitutes  the  real  Boston,  commercially,  industrially,  terri- 
torially. Lack  of  understanding  on  this  point,  failure  to 
appreciate  the  true  extent  and  magnitude  of  the  city  in  a  busi- 
ness sense,  is  largely  responsible  for  the  inadequate  and  fre- 
quently misleading  estimate  of  its  industrial  and  commercial 
advantages  which  unfortunately  has  begun  to  prevail  in  cer- 
tain quarters.  Secure  in  the  sense  of  conscious  strength, 
justly  proud  of  a  century-long  record  of  splendid  economic 
achievement,  and  a  bit  too  indifferent  to  the  opinion  of  the 
rest  of  the  country  on  the  matter,  Boston  has  not  asserted  its 
opportunities  and  proclaimed  its  progress  vigorously  enough 
to  command  the  recognition  which  is  justly  its.  Until  the 
facts  are  known,  and  an  accurate  basis  for  estimate  laid  down, 
even  the  most  moderate  and  conservative  statement  of  the 
city's  assets  would  seem  exaggerated  and  overdrawn.  The 
prime  purpose  of  this  chapter,  therefore,  is  to  show  forth  the 
business  Boston  in  its  true  proportions.  Once  these  propor- 
tions are  clearly  seen,  and  taken  as  the  groundwork  for  dis- 
cussion as  to  business  opportunities  hereabouts,  there  will  no 

[  197] 


New  England 

longer  be  occasion  to  fear  comparison  with  rival  cities.  The 
sober  facts  as  to  the  economic  situation  in  Greater  Boston  are 
sufficient  to  assure  conviction  as  to  the  unquestionable  open- 
ings for  yet  greater  industrial  and  commercial  endeavor 
which  that  region  affords. 

A  prominent  local  merchant,  whose  business  necessitates 
his  traveling  widely  in  other  states  and  who  observes  keenly 
the  while,  tells  the  following  anecdote,  which  well  illustrates 
the  curiously  inadequate  and  pernicious  notion  regarding 
Boston's  importance  as  a  trading  and  producing  center  that 
has  gained  currency  in  other  parts  of  the  country,  because 
little  has  been  done  to  combat  it.  While  in  Chicago  this  mer- 
chant fell  into  conversation  with  a  business  acquaintance,  a 
resident  of  that  city,  and  the  talk  drifted  into  comparisons 
of  the  advantages  of  the  leading  business  centers.  The  Chi- 
cagoan  was  soon  in  the  midst  of  a  glowing  eulogy  on  the 
splendid  past  achievements  and  the  matchless  future  possibili- 
ties of  the  prairie  city,  dwelling  long  on  its  physical  size,  the 
increase  of  its  population,  the  progress  of  its  industries,  and 
the  growth  in  the  volume  of  its  trade.  Presently  he  noticed 
that  his  companion  did  not  display  any  considerable  amount 
of  surprise  at  the  astounding  recital ;  in  fact,  while  apprecia- 
tive, was  by  no  means  overwhelmed  by  it.  Nettled  a  little  be- 
cause the  tale,  justly  dear  to  his  heart,  had  failed  to  produce 
its  wonted  impression  and  evoke  the  usual  succession  of  envi- 
ous and  admiring  comments,  he  assumed  an  air  of  slight  con- 
descension and  remarked,  "  Of  course  you  have  a  fine  little 
city  in  Boston  —  historic  associations,  fine  educational  op- 
portunities, delightful  place  to  visit ;  but  you  must  admit  you 
are  not  in  the  same  class  with  us  when  it  comes  to  producing 
and  purchasing  power,  industrial  energy,  and  all  that." 

Then  the  Chicagoan  got  the  surprise  of  his  life.  First  in- 
credulous, then  amazed,  and  finally  convinced  and  chastened, 
he  heard  for  the  first  time  the  story  of  "  Greater  Boston,"  — 
the  real  Boston  for  purposes  of  all  the  comparisons  which  he 
himself  had  been  making.  He  heard  with  astonishment  that 
around  the  shores  of  Boston  harbor  and  extending  miles  in- 
land there  had  grown  up  a  vast,  continuous,  homogeneous 

[  198  ] 


The  Industrial  Boston 

community,  numbering  a  million  and  a  half  souls,  and  more 
closely  bound  together  by  business  interests  and  an  extensive 
and  efficient  system  of  rapid  transit  than  the  irregular  city 
distributed  over  the  whole  of  Cook  county,  Illinois.  The  Bos- 
tonian,  like  many  of  his  kind,  was  a  student  of  history  as  well 
as  a  successful  man  of  business,  and  the  tale  which  enlight- 
ened his  western  friend  and  gave  him  a  new,  bigger  and 
better  conception  of  the  great  city  which  he  had  tolerantly 
termed  "  Boston  town,"  ran  somewhat  as  follows : 

Cities  in  the  middle  ages  were  small  affairs.  Hemmed  in  by 
defensive  walls,  their  scope  for  expansion  was  limited.  Yet 
even  in  this  unsettled  period  the  regions  round  about  the 
walled  towns  were  peopled  and  cultivated,  the  population 
without  the  walls  shading  off  by  degrees  into  the  sparsely 
settled  country  districts.  Then  came  gun-powder  and  demol- 
ished the  cramping  girdles  of  stone.  Changes  in  industrial 
organization;  an  increase  in  productive  efficiency  hastened 
the  growth  of  population  and  led  to  a  greater  degree  of  con- 
centration. Highways  were  improved ;  travel  and  transporta- 
tion facilitated.  People  found  it  easier  to  move  about,  and 
the  towns  and  cities  grew  apace.  Then  came  the  steam-rail- 
road, followed  by  local  rapid  transit  and  the  trolley  lines,  and 
the  modern  city  expanded  and  extended  itself  like  a  mushroom 
in  the  night.  This  amazing  urban  growth  has  been  one  of  the 
marvels  of  the  century  just  closed. 

The  newer  cities  and  many  of  the  old  ones  pushed  out  their 
boundaries  to  include  within  their  corporate  limits  the  as- 
tounding expansion  which  recked  little  of  political  or  munici- 
pal lines  but  flowed  wherever  topography  and  natural  ad- 
vantages of  soil  and  situation  favored.  Others  of  the  older 
cities,  chief  among  them  Boston,  enlarged  their  area  but 
slowly,  and  consequently  failed  to  furnish  accommodation 
for  the  swelling  volume  of  trade  and  production  created  by 
the  rapidly  growing  population,  which  accordingly  burst  the 
restricted  confines  of  the  city  proper  and  spread  over  the  sur- 
rounding districts.  The  reasons  for  the  city's  failure  to  en- 
large its  physical  limits  are  not  far  to  seek. 

The  whole  region,  some  five  hundred  square  miles  in  extent, 

[  199  1 


New  England 

now  roughly  included  in  the  term  Metropolitan  Boston,  was 
originally  dotted  with  separate  little  communities,  each  a  po- 
litical unit  in  itself.  These  grew  in  population,  extended  till 
their  boundaries  coalesced,  and  in  time  came  to  cover  the 
entire  region  lying  round  about  the  central  harbor,  the  heart 
of  Greater  Boston,  and  the  business  core  of  the  wide  radial 
zone  lying  about  and  tributary  to  the  city  proper. 

Each  of  these  towns  as  it  expanded  also  gradually  devel- 
oped and  built  up  a  separate  corporate  existence,  and  a  body 
of  social  and  political  tradition  which  have  caused  it  to  per- 
sist as  a  distinct  political  entity,  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  this 
whole  section  of  the  state  has  since  been  so  thickly  peopled 
and  so  closely  knit  together  by  transportation  connections 
and  community  of  commercial  and  industrial  interests  as  to 
become  practically  one  great  expanded  city  with  a  popula- 
tion of  nearly  a  million  and  a  half,  and  a  purchasing  and 
producing  power,  in  proportion  to  population,  exceeding 
that  of  any  similar  region  in  the  country. 

This  persistence  of  the  smaller  cities  and  towns  surrounding 
Boston,  as  independent  communities,  though  commercially, 
industrially  and  territorially  they  are  virtually  constituent 
parts  of  one  broad  and  homogeneous  city  area,  has  physically 
circumscribed  the  municipal  Boston,  and  made  impossible  fur- 
ther extension  of  its  limits,  to  a  degree  that  would  enable  it 
to  include  the  field  within  which  the  interests  and  activities  of 
which  it  is  the  center  exist  and  are  carried  on.  What  has  been 
the  result?  Unable  to  provide  scope  within  its  own  boundaries 
for  the  constantly  swelling  volume  of  industry  and  trade, 
initiated  in  the  first  instance  by  the  advantages  afforded  by 
its  harbor  and  railroad  facilities,  the  city  has  been  forced  to 
watch  the  tide  spread  out  over  the  surrounding  districts,  and 
see  itself  given  an  artificially  low  rating  in  government  re- 
ports, while  New  York,  Chicago,  Philadelphia,  St.  Louis  and 
the  other  large  cities  which  compete  with  Boston  in  size  and 
economic  activity,  have  loomed  large  in  the  census  returns, 
because  they  have  technically  brought  within  their  corporate 
limits  large  areas  as  yet  only  partially  developed  and  capable 
of  sustaining  a  considerable  future  expansion  of  population  and 

[  200  1 


The  Industrial  Boston 

production.  As  a  consequence  of  these  restricted  boundaries, 
which  give  it  an  area  of  only  thirty-eight  square  miles,  Boston 
has  been  forced  to  see  her  expansion  in  population,  com- 
merce and  industry  —  j  ust  as  homogeneous  as  that  of  its  sis- 
ter cities  and  just  as  closely  linked  up  with  the  city  proper  — 
chopped  up  into  little  chunks  in  official  reports  and  distrib- 
uted among  two  score  cities  and  towns  immediately  sur- 
rounding it  but  so  merged  with  the  Greater  Boston  district  as 
to  be  physically  indistinguishable  as  independent  communi- 
ties. The  country  at  large,  basing  its  estimate  of  Boston's 
size  and  business  importance  upon  census  reports  concerning 
the  political  unit  only,  and  knowing  little  or  nothing  of  the 
situation  and  interrelation  of  the  cities  and  towns  in  the 
metropolitan  district,  and  the  substantial  unity  of  that  region 
commercially  and  industrially,  has  gained  a  wholly  inade- 
quate impression  of  the  city's  real  extent  and  importance  as 
a  population  and  business  center.  It  is  true  that  some  other 
cities  have  had  the  same  experience,  but  not  in  a  like  degree. 
Boston  furnishes,  far  and  away,  the  most  striking  example, 
and  has  accordingly  been  most  inadequately  judged  and 
rated. 

Obviously,  this  is  a  condition  that  must  be  recognized  and 
understood  in  any  attempt  to  state  fairly  and  accurately 
Boston's  resources  and  advantages.  Insistence  upon  the  en- 
larged conception  of  a  Greater  Boston  as  the  only  just  basis 
upon  which  to  reckon  the  city's  economic  assets  will  more  than 
anything  else  enlighten  business  men  the  country  over  as  to 
the  striking  opportunities,  industrial  and  commercial,  here 
presented,  and  will  gain  for  Boston  that  acknowledgment 
and  appreciation  of  its  splendid  economic  achievements  which 
is  its  just  due.  Our  sister  cities  do  not  spare  the  colors  in 
painting  their  advantages  and  prospects.  Certainly,  we  are 
warranted  in  claiming  that  measure  of  recognition  which  is 
rightfully  ours  but  which  has  been  withheld  by  reason  of  lack 
of  clear  understanding  as  to  the  real  situation. 

Like  the  Chicagoan,  when  the  Boston  merchant  had  finished 
his  tale  of  the  real  Boston,  we  are  now  prepared  to  examine 
and  correctly  interpret  the  significant  and  striking  facts  as 

[  201  1 


New  England 

to  Greater  Boston  of  concern  to  the  merchant  and  the  manu- 
facturer, the  home-seeker  and  the  traveler  in  search  of  pleas- 
ure and  scenes  of  interest. 

Boston  proper  is  predominantly  commercial,  and  has  al- 
ways been  so.  Situated  on  one  of  the  finest  natural  harbors 
in  the  world,  180  miles  nearer  the  ports  of  western  Europe 
than  New  York,  she  has  long  been  the  entrepot  of  the  whole 
New  England  region,  and  the  market  and  outlet  for  much  of 
the  vast  production  of  the  West  and  Northwest.  Ever  since 
the  days  when  the  China  trade  crowded  her  wharves  with  tea- 
chests  and  the  rare  products  of  the  East,  days  when  the 
Yankee  clipper  ship  was  the  acknowledged  mistress  of  the 
seas  and  the  Yankee  sailors  the  best  seamen  afloat,  the  marts 
of  Boston  have  been  famed  the  world  over.  Its  merchants 
bought  and  sold  the  wares  of  every  clime  and  continent.  Its 
warehouses  supplied  the  wants  of  the  whole  of  New  England, 
and  ministered  to  the  needs  of  people  of  every  condition  all 
over  the  wide  West. 

Later  developments  but  augmented  this  importance  as  a 
great  market  and  distributing  point.  When  steam,  driving 
vessels  of  larger  tonnage  and  deeper  draught,  had  emanci- 
pated ocean  commerce  from  the  vagaries  of  wind  and  weather, 
the  new  and  greater  ocean  carriers  found  in  the  broad,  deep 
channels  of  Boston  Harbor  anchorage  and  dock  accommoda- 
tions equaled  by  few  ports  in  the  world.  With  the  advent  of 
steam-railways,  Boston  became  the  converging  point  of  the 
entire  New  England  system.  And  finally,  when  the  trolley 
net  began  to  grow,  its  steel  meshes  were  woven  thickest  about 
the  population  and  commercial  center,  the  metropolis  of  the 
region.  A  glance  at  a  steam  and  electric  railway  map  of  New 
England  today  will  show  a  dense  maze  of  rail  lines  crowding 
and  crossing  one  another  as  they  run  together  in  the  Greater 
Boston  district  and  focus  on  the  city,  then  untangle  and 
spread  out  in  all  directions  over  the  State.  Nature  in  the  be- 
ginning made  Boston  the  focal  point  and  future  metropolis 
of  New  England.  Later  developments  have  but  established 
this  position  more  securely. 

[  202  ] 


The  Industrial  Boston 

We  may  now  proceed  to  examine  more  closely  into  the  con- 
ditions which  spell  Opportunity  for  the  merchant  in  Boston, 
and  which  demonstrate  the  city's  importance  as  the  seat  of 
a  great  mercantile  activity.  Considerations  that  would  influ- 
ence the  wholesaler  or  jobber  in  his  choice  of  a  place  to  locate 
and  do  business  would  be:  (1)  local  market  conditions,  (2) 
access  to  wider  markets,  (3)  relation  to  sources  of  produc- 
tions and  supply,  and  (4)  trade  traditions. 

The  local  market  to  which  the  wholesaler  situated  in  Bos- 
ton has  access  is  of  tremendous  extent  and  purchasing  power. 
No  more  serious  miscalculation  could  be  made  than  to  suppose 
that  the  670,000  odd  persons  who  reside  in  Boston  proper 
constitute  the  bulk  of  the  buying  community.  Within  what  is 
loosely  termed  the  metropolitan  district,  a  region  roughly 
within  a  dozen  miles  of  the  State  House  and  thickly  and  con- 
tinuously populated  throughout,  live  about  a  million  and  a 
half  people.  In  practically  none  of  the  cities  and  towns  in 
this  district  are  there  to  be  found  large  mercantile  establish- 
ments, either  wholesale  or  retail,  or  any  considerable  centers 
of  trading  activity,  other  than  the  smaller  stores  and  shops 
which  always  abound.  This  virtual  absence  of  mercantile  ac- 
tivity on  an  extensive  scale  in  cities,  some  of  which  boast 
from  twenty-five  to  one  hundred  thousand  inhabitants,  shows 
conclusively  that  in  a  commercial  sense  these  communities  are 
as  closely  identified  with  Boston  as  if  they  were  politically 
incorporated  within  its  limits.  This  great  metropolitan  area, 
furthermore,  is  closely  knit  together  by  a  steam  and  electric 
suburban  service  than  which  there  is  none  better  in  the 
country. 

Boston  and  vicinity  has  long  been  known  as  a  region  whose 
residents  enjoy  a  much  greater  degree  of  material  well-being 
than  prevails  generally.  The  standard  of  living  is  high,  and 
the  population  possesses  the  means  to  maintain  that  standard. 
By  the  best  estimates  available,  the  per  capita  wealth  of 
Greater  Boston  is  larger  than  that  of  any  similar  region  in 
the  world,  exceeding  that  of  most  of  the  other  large  cities  of 
the  country  by  wide  margins.  Brookline,  a  contiguous  suburb 
of  Boston  proper,  is  often  quoted  as  the  wealthiest  commu- 

f  203  1 


New  England 

nity  of  its  size  in  the  world.  While  the  aggregate  wealth  of  the 
Greater  Boston  district  is  large,  it  is  also  more  evenly  dis- 
tributed than  is  commonly  the  case.  There  are  few  colossal 
fortunes  but  many  substantial  ones,  and  a  great  body  of 
people  in  the  middle  classes  enjoying  moderate  but  comfort- 
able incomes.  The  wage-earners  are  also,  as  a  class,  relatively 
more  skilled  and  better  paid  than  in  most  other  great  urban 
districts.  The  high  per  capita  wealth  and  the  relatively  large 
earning  power  of  the  population,  together  with  the  high 
standard  of  comfort  that  prevails,  evidence  a  volume  of  pur- 
chasing power  of  remarkable  extent  and  stability.  It  has  been 
reckoned  by  those  qualified  to  pass  judgment  that  the  Greater 
Boston  region  possesses  a  buying  and  consuming  power  nor- 
mally wielded  by  a  population  of  two  millions  of  people  in 
other  sections  of  the  country,  the  actual  population  of  the 
district  being  25  percent  under  that  figure.  So  much  for  the 
local  market,  a  field  wide  enough  to  furnish  ample  opportun- 
ity and  scope  for  the  most  ambitious  mercantile  enterprise. 

Easy  access  to  wider  markets  is  also  afforded  the  merchant 
with  headquarters  in  Boston.  Within  a  fifty-mile  radius  dwell 
more  than  three  millions  of  people.  In  New  England  as  a 
whole,  closely  linked  with  the  metropolis  by  the  three  great 
converging  railroad  systems  whose  close  network  of  lines 
reach  every  village  and  town  of  consequence,  live  more  than 
six  millions  of  people,  the  bulk  of  whose  wants  are  supplied 
through  the  activities  of  Boston  mercantile  houses.  The  very 
isolation  of  New  England,  the  physical  barriers  which  have 
marked  off  and  set  it  apart  as  a  distinct  geographical  section 
of  the  country,  have  only  confirmed  the  decree  of  nature  writ 
in  its  harbor,  that  Boston  should  be  the  commercial  heart  of 
this  territorial  unit;  and  not  once  has  this  decree  been  ques- 
tioned, because  it  was  founded  on  advantages  indisputable 
and  a  development  unequaled. 

But  this  preeminence  in  the  home  field  has  in  no  sense  hin- 
dered the  Boston  merchants  from  reaching  out  for  control 
of  wider  markets.  The  facilities  for  water-transportation  af- 
forded by  the  twenty-odd  steamship  lines  whose  vessels  dock 
regularly  at  Boston,  have  made  it  the  second  port  of  the 

[  204  ] 


The  Industrial  Boston 

country  as  regards  value  of  imports,  which  in  1909  reached 
a  total  of  over  $127,000,000.  In  the  total  import  and  export 
trade,  which  in  1909  amounted  in  round  numbers  to  $200,- 
000,000,  Boston  took  third  rank.  Merchants,  profiting  by  the 
low  water  rates  to  coastal  points,  have  been  enabled  to  estab- 
lish along  the  seaboard  distributing  agencies  through  which 
they  have  gained  control  of  trade  in  neighboring  and  tribu- 
tary regions.  The  advantages  to  houses  doing  an  importing 
and  exporting  business  of  location  in  a  port  like  Boston  need 
no  comment. 

However,  it  may  be  said  that  a  healthy  dissatisfaction,  in- 
dicative of  enterprise  and  business  vigor,  has  been  growing  of 
late  with  regard  to  the  dock  and  water  terminal  facilities  of 
the  city.  As  a  result  of  this,  plans  for  far  reaching  improve- 
ments along  the  water  front,  looking  to  the  modernizing  and 
enlarging  of  docks  and  the  bettering  of  methods  for  handling 
cargoes,  have  already  been  adopted,  and  substantial  appro- 
priations, extending  over  a  period  of  years,  have  been  pro- 
vided for  putting  these  plans  into  effect.  Public  sentiment  has 
demanded  with  unmistakable  vigor  and  directness  that  the  en- 
gineering feature  of  the  port  be  made  commensurate  with  the 
splendid  natural  advantages  of  the  harbor.  Unless  unforeseen 
obstacles  arise,  another  decade  should  see  Boston  one  of  the 
best  equipped  ports  in  the  world,  with  an  export  trade  fed  by 
the  great  industrial  hinterland,  reaching  every  nation  on  the 
globe. 

But  the  seaboard  territory  reached  by  water-carriage  is 
by  no  means  the  most  important  market  outside  of  New  Eng- 
land. To  the  West,  far  West,  Northwest,  and  South,  railroad 
rates  from  Boston  are  the  same  as  those  from  New  York. 
Contrary  to  the  popular  impression,  too,  the  grades  on  the 
railroads  which  top  the  Berkshires  and  connect  Boston  with 
the  West  are  lower  than  on  the  trunk  lines  which  join  Phila- 
delphia and  Baltimore  with  the  trans- Allegh  any  region  and 
the  markets  of  the  vast  Mississippi  valley.  If  projects  now 
afoot  are  realized,  and  there  is  good  reason  for  believing  they 
will  be,  Boston  will  one  day  become  the  gateway  to  Europe 
for  the  large  and  swelling  production  of  the  Northwest,  both 

[  205  1 


New  England 

of  the  United  States  and  Canada.  A  destiny  so  obvious  can 
hardly  fail  of  realization. 

Close  contact  with  the  sources  of  production  and  supply 
in  many  of  the  great  staple  trades  is  afforded  the  merchant 
in  Boston  by  reason  of  his  location  in  the  heart  of  what  is 
admittedly  the  most  highly  developed  industrial  section  of  the 
whole  country.  As  a  great  primary  market  and  distributing 
point  for  leather,  boots  and  shoes,  wool,  textiles,  rubber  prod- 
ucts, chocolate  and  confectionery,  the  city's  standing  is 
widely  recognized.  With  the  State  producing  nearly  one-half 
the  boot  and  shoe  output  of  the  country,  nearly  one-third 
the  woolen  and  worsted  goods,  more  than  a  quarter  of  the 
cotton  goods,  and  over  a  fifth  of  the  rubber  and  elastic  goods, 
the  importance  of  Boston  as  a  market  and  distributing  center 
for  these  great  staple  products  is  easily  seen.  A  host  of  minor 
industries,  many  of  them  with  a  very  large  volume  of  produc- 
tion, find  in  Boston  an  outlet  and  clearing-house  for  their 
output. 

The  extent  to  which  the  city  is  the  market  for  the  huge  and 
varied  production  of  the  highly  developed  New  England  in- 
dustrial region  is  indicated  by  the  fact  that  the  volume  of 
trading,  wholesale  and  retail,  in  Boston  is  about  five  times  the 
value  of  the  city's  own  industrial  product,  which  is  in  the 
neighborhood  of  $200,000,000  annually.  This  would  give  a 
yearly  volume  of  exchanges  aggregating  roughly  one  billion 
dollars.  In  practically  every  other  large  city  of  the  State  the 
value  of  goods  manufactured  exceeds  the  value  of  goods 
bought  and  sold  by  wide  margins,  the  production  of  these 
localities  being  sent  to  the  commercial  center  of  the  region. 
The  significance  of  this  as  showing  the  commanding  position 
which  Boston  holds  as  the  primary  market  of  middle  New 
England  is  unmistakable. 

Trade  traditions  of  the  right  kind  are  a  real  asset  to  any 
city  so  fortunate  as  to  possess  them.  Merchants  carefully 
reckon  the  value  of  such  traditions  in  their  calculations  as  to 
the  relative  advantages  of  cities  as  headquarters  for  mercan- 
tile business.  The  Boston  merchant  has  been  a  national  figure 
since  colonial  times.  His  activities  have  everywhere  played  a 

[  206  1 


The  Industrial  Boston 

leading  part  in  upbuilding  the  trade  of  the  nation.  And 
throughout  it  all,  with  strikingly  few  exceptions,  Boston  firms 
have  won  and  held  a  reputation  for  fair-dealing,  stability 
and  sound  enterprise,  that  has  gone  far  to  give  the  city  its 
proud  place  in  the  mercantile  world.  Then,  too,  there  is  a 
suggestion  of  "  all  wool  and  a  yard  wide  "  quality  about  the 
very  name  of  Boston,  the  cumulative  result  of  past  policy  in 
providing  honest  values,  that  gives  the  average  buyer  confi- 
dence in  purchasing  goods  bearing  the  Boston  trade-mark. 

Our  considerations  thus  far  have  dealt  more  particularly 
with  the  advantages  which  Boston  offers  in  the  wholesale, 
jobbing,  import  and  export,  trades.  Many  of  the  advantages 
cited  with  reference  to  these  fields  apply  with  equal  force  to 
the  retail  trade.  It  is  sufficient  on  this  point  to  repeat  that 
the  retailer  in  Boston  can  calculate  on  a  local  market  with  a 
possible  buying  power  equal  to  that  normally  wielded  by  more 
than  a  million  and  a  half  people.  A  highly  developed  and  low- 
fare  system  of  local  transit  —  steam,  electric,  elevated  and 
subway  —  focuses  this  enormous  volume  of  purchasing  power 
largely  on  the  shopping  districts  of  Boston  proper.  Any  one 
who  has  ever  attempted  to  make  his  way  along  Washington 
street  on  a  fine  Saturday  afternoon  can  have  no  further 
doubts  as  to  the  opportunity  in  the  retail  field  which  Boston 
presents. 

Industrial  Boston,  like  commercial  Boston,  is  far  wider  in 
extent  than  is  generally  supposed.  Figures  as  to  the  city 
proper  give  only  a  superficial  and  incomplete  idea  of  the  real 
importance  of  the  community  as  a  manufacturing  center.  A 
Federal  Census  Bulletin  (No.  101)  issued  in  1909,  and  en- 
titled "  Industrial  Districts,"  contains  the  following  state- 
ment, which  constitutes  a  recognition  of  the  unity  of  the 
Greater  Boston  industrial  district  by  the  census  authorities: 

"  Certain  suburban  towns  and  cities  connected  with  Boston 
by  trolleys  and  steam-roads  are  so  closely  allied  industrially 
that  it  seems  proper  to  consider  them  a  part  of  the  industrial 
district  of  which  Boston  is  the  center." 

The  bulletin  then  goes  on  to  enumerate  forty-three  cities 

[  207  1 


New  England 

and  towns,  comprising  an  area  of  about  500  square  miles  and 
a  population  of  over  1,354,000  in  1905,  estimated  at  about 
1,500,000  today,  as  included  within  the  Boston  industrial 
district  here  defined.  These  communities  are  territorially  con- 
tinuous and  intimately  knit  together  by  commercial  and  finan- 
cial ties  and  identity  of  business  interests  of  every  sort.  They 
make  one  great,  homogeneous,  industrial  area.  Similar  dis- 
tricts are  outlined  for  twelve  other  leading  manufacturing 
cities  of  the  country,  and  a  study  of  the  comparisons  thus 
made  possible  reveal  some  startling  and  highly  encouraging 
facts  as  to  the  industrial  situation  in  and  around  Boston. 

Any  attempt  systematically  to  describe  the  conditions  with 
regard  to  industries  in  a  region  must  take  account  (1)  of 
the  volume  of  production,  (2)  of  the  character  of  production, 
and  (3)  of  the  rate  of  industrial  increase. 

Among  the  thirteen  districts  considered  —  the  largest  in 
the  country  —  Boston  ranks  fourth  as  regards  total  value 
of  manufactured  products  in  1905,  the  figures  showing  an 
annual  volume  of  production  only  a  little  short  of  half  a  bil- 
lion. The  districts  ranking  Boston  in  respect  to  value  of 
product  were  those  about  New  York,  Chicago  and  Philadel- 
phia, cities  whose  populations  were  from  three  to  ten  times 
greater  than  that  of  Boston,  a  proportion  by  no  means 
equaled  in  the  value  of  products.  The  city  areas  selected  for 
purposes  of  this  study  were  chosen  by  the  Census  Bureau  with 
the  idea  of  making  them  as  comparable  as  possible;  those 
about  Chicago,  Philadelphia  and  Boston,  being  almost  iden- 
tical in  extent.  This,  in  a  measure,  worked  to  the  disadvan- 
tage of  Boston  in  the  comparisons,  because,  while  in  the  case 
of  the  sister  cities  the  districts  defined  really  marked  the  limits 
of  the  industrial  zones  of  which  they  were  the  centers,  the 
country  beyond  shading  off  quickly  into  farming  sections, 
around  Boston  the  zone  of  industrial  activity  extends  solidly 
for  many  miles  further.  An  extension  of  ten  miles  in  the 
radii  of  the  districts  would  have  enormously  cut  down  the 
lead  in  the  value  of  manufactured  product  enjoyed  by  the 
other  cities  by  reason  of  their  greater  size.  The  significance 
of  all  this  is  in  showing  the  wider  reach  and  greater  continu- 

[  208  1 


The  Industrial  Boston 

ity  of  the  manufacturing  region  of  which  Boston  is  the  center. 
With  this  important  reservation  in  mind,  then,  we  may  con- 
clude that  as  regards  volume  of  production  Boston  ranks 
fourth  among  the  great  industrial  centers  of  the  country.  The 
city  proper,  with  its  restricted  area  of  thirty-eight  square 
miles,  took  fifth  rank,  being  surpassed  by  St.  Louis  as  well  as 
by  the  other  three  cities  mentioned.  In  the  production  of  her 
whole  industrial  district  however  St.  Louis  showed  a  value 
hardly  two-thirds  that  of  the  Boston  district. 

As  regards  quality  of  production,  the  industrial  district 
of  Greater  Boston  probably  ranks  first  in  the  country.  An 
enumeration  of  the  leading  industries  would  include:  Boots 
and  shoes,  cut  stock  and  findings,  leather,  rubber  products, 
slaughtering  and  meat  packing,  printing  and  publishing, 
foundry  and  machine  shop  products,  wool,  clothing,  textiles, 
electrical  machinery  and  supplies.  Other  industries  of  great 
importance  are  chocolate  and  cocoa  products,  shipbuilding, 
iron  and  steel,  sugar  and  molasses  refining,  watches,  ma- 
chinery, etc.  All  of  these  minister  to  fundamental  human 
needs.  They  are  staple  in  character,  and  most  of  them  demand 
a  highly  skilled  grade  of  labor  and  a  degree  of  financial  sup- 
port and  ability  in  management  that  puts  them  in  the  class 
of  high-grade  industries. 

It  should  be  noted  in  this  connection  that  the  tendency 
operative  throughout  the  industries  of  the  State,  as  well  as  in 
Boston,  is  distinctly  toward  a  superior  quality  of  production. 
Massachusetts  and  New  England,  remote  as  they  are  from 
the  sources  of  raw  materials  and  of  fuel  supply,  cannot  com- 
pete with  manufacturing  centers  in  the  South  and  West  in 
the  production  of  low-grade  commodities,  the  bulk  of  whose 
value  lies  in  the  material  they  contain  and  not  in  the  manipu- 
lation and  fabrication  they  undergo.  Such  commodities  repre- 
sent only  a  low-labor  cost.  The  proportion  of  industrial  in- 
telligence and  skill  which  has  entered  into  their  designing  and 
production  is  relatively  small.  But  these  two  qualities,  the 
product  of  what  might  be  termed  human  resources,  constitute 
two  of  the  most  important  industrial  assets  of  Massachusetts. 
Assets  they  are,  too,  most  difficult  to  duplicate  elsewhere.  They 

f  209  1 


New  England 

are  the  result  of  a  century  of  industrial  experience,  and  the 
advantages  which  the  momentum  of  an  early  start  in  manufac- 
turing pursuits  has  given  us.  In  an  estimate  of  industrial  re- 
sources, they  must  be  reckoned  of  even  more  account  than 
proximity  to  supplies  of  raw  materials  or  to  markets,  an  ad- 
vantage which  every  improvement  in  transportation  has  les- 
sened and  which  has  never  been  decisive,  as  witness  the  great 
cotton  industry  of  England,  thousands  of  miles  from  the  near- 
est cotton  field  and  still  vigorous,  flourishing  and  expanding. 
Obviously,  the  industrial  policy  which  will  enable  our  manu- 
facturers to  profit  most  fully  from  this  advantage,  to  avail 
themselves  most  completely  of  the  splendid  human  resources 
created  during  a  century  in  this  region,  and  at  the  same  time 
overcome  the  disadvantage  of  our  geographical  location  and 
the  dearth  of  mineral  wealth,  is  one  which  will  aim  at  an  in- 
creasingly higher  quality  of  product,  a  product  that  will  in- 
corporate a  very  large  amount  of  value  in  comparatively 
small  bulk  and  so  be  easy  of  transportation  to  distant  markets. 
A  significant  and  encouraging  feature  of  the  industrial  situa- 
tion in  the  State  during  the  past  decade  has  been  the  fact  that 
during  a  period  of  most  remarkable  progress  and  expansion 
of  all  industries  the  heaviest  advances  were  made  in  those 
fields  where  the  production  is  of  the  highest  grade.  In  some 
instances  this  advance  has  been  at  an  accelerated  rate,  grow- 
ing more  rapid  each  year. 

Boston's  labor  supply  is  her  most  valuable  industrial  re- 
source. This  fact,  and  the  advantage  which  it  confers,  is  gen- 
erally recognized  throughout  the  country.  The  population 
census  of  1905  shows  60,856  males  and  23,170  females,  a 
total  of  84,026  persons,  or  about  one-seventh  of  the  total 
population,  reporting  themselves  as  engaged  in  manufactur- 
ing pursuits  in  Boston.  These  figures  apply  only  to  purely 
industrial  occupations,  and  do  not  include  unskilled  laborers 
or  persons  engaged  in  trade,  transportation,  fisheries,  agri- 
culture, or  mining.  The  possible  labor  supply  that  can  be 
drawn  upon  by  local  industries  is  much  larger.  Within  the 
fourteen  cities  and  towns  contiguous  to  Boston,  and  industri- 
ally a  part  of  it,  there  were  56,552  persons  returned  as  en- 

[  210  1 


The  Industrial  Boston 

gaged  in  manufacturing  pursuits  in  1905.  In  the  fifteen 
cities  and  towns  not  contiguous  to  Boston  proper,  but  in  the 
metropolitan  district,  50,470  persons  reported  themselves  as 
in  manufacturing  pursuits  in  1905.  Within  the  Greater  Boston 
industrial  district  then,  the  region  largely  within  a  twelve- 
mile  radius  of  the  State  House,  there  were  in  the  last  census 
year  nearly  a  quarter  of  a  million  persons  earning  their  liveli- 
hood by  employment  in  industries.  In  view  of  the  extraordi- 
nary industrial  growth  in  this  region,  to  be  noted  later,  it  is 
reasonable  to  assume  that  the  laboring  population  has  been 
largely  augumented  during  the  past  five  years.  This  opin- 
ion is  supported  by  the  fact  that  in  the  period  of  1900—1905 
the  industrial  population  of  the  Greater  Boston  district  in- 
creased over  20  percent.  If  this  rate  has  continued,  and  there 
is  good  reason  for  thinking  it  has  actually  been  accelerated, 
the  labor  supply  of  the  district  today  should  be  close  to  one- 
third  of  a  million  workers.  Within  this  vast  industrial  army 
will  be  found  men  and  women  possessing  almost  every  kind 
of  manual  skill  required  in  the  complex  industries  of  today. 
The  manufacturer  who  locates  in  the  Greater  Boston  district 
will  always  find  within  easy  access  an  abundant  and  elastic 
labor  supply  capable  of  adapting  itself  quickly  and  surely 
to  his  every  need. 

The  opportunity  afforded  the  laborer  in  Boston  for  secur- 
ing a  general  educational  training  and  a  vocational  equip- 
ment is  unsurpassed  anywhere  in  the  country.  The  educa- 
tional authorities  of  the  State  and  of  the  city  have  recognized 
the  importance  of  developing  to  the  utmost  our  human  re- 
sources —  the  intelligence  and  skill  of  our  industrial  workers. 
To  this  end  far-reaching  plans  are  now  in  the  making  for 
a  comprehensive  and  thorough-going  system  of  industrial 
and  commercial  schools,  which  shall  conserve  and  further  de- 
velop the  advantage  which  the  alert  brains  and  deft  fingers 
of  our  work-people  have  created.  The  State  Board  of  Edu- 
cation, reorganized  a  year  ago  along  lines  best  calculated 
to  secure  efficiency  in  working  out  promptly  and  effectively 
a  scheme  of  industrial  and  commercial  training,  has  already 
made  a  beginning  in  its  important  task,  and  the  future  prom- 

[  211  ] 


New  England 

ises  rapid  developments.  The  experience  of  Germany  shows 
strikingly  what  may  be  accomplished  for  the  furtherance  of 
industry  and  trade  through  a  wise  system  of  public  instruc- 
tion, carefully  adjusted  to  the  economic  needs  of  the  com- 
munity. Massachusetts  bids  fair  to  repeat  this  experience, 
and  Boston  will  naturally  be  in  the  forefront  of  the  movement. 

We  have  now 'arrived  at  the  consideration  of  what  is  per- 
haps the  most  striking,  significant,  and  encouraging,  feature 
of  the  local  industrial  situation.  This  consideration  has  to  do 
with  the  rate  of  progress  made  by  industries  within  the  dis- 
trict, as  measured  by  the  increase  in  the  value  of  their 
product.  Among  the  five  leading  industrial  districts  of  the 
country  —  those  lying  about  New  York,  Chicago,  Philadel- 
phia, Boston  and  Pittsburg  —  the  Boston  district  ranked 
second  as  regards  the  rate  of  increase  in  the  value  of  the 
product  of  its  industries  during  the  period  1900-1905, 
being  exceeded  by  New  York  alone.  This  single  fact  is  con- 
clusive evidence  of  the  splendid  vitality,  expanding  power, 
and  sound  enterprise,  that  have  always  characterized  Boston's 
industries  in  the  past,  and  will  continue  to  characterize  them 
in  the  future. 

That  changes  have  been  going  on  in  the  local  industrial 
field,  that  there  has  been  a  shifting  and  readjustment  of  in- 
dustrial activities,  a  movement  to  the  suburbs  and  an  aban- 
donment of  old  industrial  centers  within  the  city  proper,  is 
not  denied.  But  that  this  tendency  is  something  to  become 
alarmed  over,  and  proclaimed  as  an  ominous  symptom,  is  a 
wholly  wrong  construction  to  put  on  the  situation.  For  con- 
sider that  in  the  five-year  period  1900-1905  the  value  of  the 
output  of  industries  within  the  Greater  Boston  district  in- 
creased 29.2  percent.  During  the  same  period  the  increase 
for  the  Chicago  district  was  20.4  percent,  for  the  Philadel- 
phia district  16.3  percent,  and  for  the  Pittsburg  district 
12.8  percent.  The  comparison  with  Chicago  and  Philadelphia 
is  especially  significant,  as  the  districts  for  those  cities  are 
practically  indentical  in  size  with  that  of  Boston,  each  of 
them  being  about  500  square  miles  in  extent.  Chicago,  prob- 
ably more  than  any  other  city,  with  the  exception  of  New 

[  212  ] 


The  Industrial  Boston 

York,  is  associated  throughout  the  country  generally  with 
astounding  progress ;  resistless,  overleaping  expansion  in  in- 
dustry and  trade.  And  yet  the  product  of  Chicago's  industrial 
district  increased  in  value  during  the  period  under  considera- 
tion only  about  two-thirds  as  fast  as  the  product  of  the 
Boston  district.  This  fact  has  to  be  mulled  over  a  bit  before 
its  full  import  is  grasped.  Philadelphia  showed  an  increase 
only  little  more  than  half,  and  Pittsburg  one  less  than  half, 
that  of  Boston,  whose  advance  was  exceeded  by  the  scant 
margin  of  3^  percent  by  New  York  alone. 

To  be  sure,  Boston  proper  during  the  period  1900—1905 
showed  an  increase  of  only  13.3  percent  in  the  volume  of 
manufactured  output,  while  the  Greater  Boston  district,  out- 
side of  the  thirty-eight  square  miles  of  the  political  unit  at 
the  center,  made  the  astounding  advance  of  42.7  percent.  As 
asserted  before,  this  indicates  not  a  decline  but  rather  a 
shifting  of  industry  to  regions  a  little  further  out,  where  the 
prices  of  land  and  the  rental  of  plants  are  lower  than  in  the 
congested  districts  of  the  city  proper.  The  very  fact  that  the 
rate  of  growth  within  the  city  has  diminished,  accompanied 
as  it  is  by  the  fact  that  just  outside  and  around  the  city  that 
growth  is  going  on  more  rapidly  than  before,  is  in  itself  evi- 
dence of  the  splendid  vitality  and  expanding  power  of  our 
industries.  To  argue  that  because  the  surging  increase  in 
the  volume  of  manufacturing  activity  could  not  be  accommo- 
dated within  the  narrow  confines  of  the  small  municipal  unit 
industries  are  therefore  decadent,  is  to  see  only  one  small 
part  of  the  whole  situation,  and  is  in  no  sense  a  correct  in- 
terpretation of  conditions. 

On  the  other  hand,  while  the  rapid  expansion  of  industries 
just  outside  of  Boston  and  the  slowing  up  of  the  rate  of  in- 
dustrial advance  in  the  city  proper  is  an  evidence  of  abound- 
ing industrial  vitality  and  capacity  for  growth,  it  also  indi- 
cates a  failure,  as  yet,  to  so  organize  industrial  activities 
within  the  city  as  to  permit  of  the  considerable  expansion 
which  is  yet  possible,  —  a  situation  found  in  all  large  cities. 
There  is  still  plenty  of  land  admirably  adapted  for  factory 
sites  along  the  water  front  of  municipal  Boston,  relatively 

[  213  1 


New  England 

high-priced,  to  be  sure,  but  capable  of  being  profitably  em- 
ployed for  industrial  purposes  if  developed  in  the  right  way. 
The  city  proper,  generally  speaking,  by  reason  of  the  higher 
cost  of  land,  is  not  so  well  adapted  to  large  industries  re- 
quiring extensive  yards  for  sheds  and  storage  space  as  the 
more  open  regions  outside.  But  for  a  host  of  smaller,  lighter 
industries,  which  make  up  fully  two-thirds  of  those  enumer- 
ated in  the  census  classification,  —  industries  which  can  go  up 
in  the  air  in  properly  constructed  buildings  rather  than  along 
the  ground,  and  whose  machinery  is  of  a  kind  that  can  be  in- 
stalled on  upper  floors  and  lofts  and  operated  by  electric 
power  or  gas  engine,  —  to  industries  of  this  sort,  the  high 
cost  of  land  in  the  city  proper  would  be  no  obstacle,  provided 
there  could  be  found  large,  modern,  factory-loft  buildings, 
four  to  six  stories  in  height,  which  would  so  fully  utilize  the  land 
as  to  make  it  support  a  large  volume  of  industry  and  thus 
reduce  its  cost  to  a  point  where  it  would  not  be  a  burden  on 
the  manufacturer.  Such  buildings  should  have  the  best  pos- 
sible transportation  connections,  both  rail  and  water,  when 
feasible,  and  should  be  constructed  of  such  materials  and  on 
such  plans  as  to  reduce  the  insurance  rates  of  tenants  to  the 
lowest  possible  figure.  They  should  be  well-lighted,  venti- 
lated, and  equipped  with  all  needful  sanitary  facilities,  so  as 
to  make  it  possible  for  work-people  to  realize  their  highest 
efficiency,  and  should  be  so  arranged  that  space  could  be  util- 
ized in  the  most  economical  way.  Housed  in  buildings  of  this 
type,  right  in  the  midst  of  the  dense  labor  market  of  the  city 
proper,  and  enjoying  all  the  indirect  advantages  that  accrue 
from  location  in  the  heart  of  a  great  producing  and 
marketing  center,  and  from  close  and  constant  contact 
with  allied  trades,  the  proprietors  of  hundreds  of  small 
manufacturing  industries  would  find  themselves  situated  to 
far  better  advantage  in  Boston  than  anywhere  else  in  the 
State. 

Wages  in  and  around  Boston  are  moderate  for  industries  of 
high  grade.  Labor,  while  well  organized,  is  intelligently  and 
conservatively  led  and  reasonable  in  its  demands.  Industrial 
disturbances  are  comparatively  infrequent  and  seldom  of  seri- 

[  214  1 


The  Industrial  Boston 

ous  consequence.  Boston  has  probably  suffered  fewer  losses 
from  this  cause  than  any  other  city  of  equal  size  in  the  coun- 
try. It  is  worth  noting,  also,  that  trade  unions  in  a  large  city 
are  not  in  a  position  to  dominate  the  local  labor  market  to 
anything  like  the  extent  that  is  possible  in  the  smaller  cities 
and  towns.  They  are  overshadowed  by  the  magnitude  and 
complexity  of  the  whole  industrial  situation,  and  the  variety 
of  trades  prevents  any  one  from  gaining  a  place  of  such  com- 
manding power  as  to  lead  to  abuses  such  as  are  sometimes 
found  in  localities  where  great  concentration  of  a  few  indus- 
tries has  taken  place.  To  the  manufacturer  whose  experience 
with  organized  labor  has  been  unfortunate,  a  city  like  Boston, 
with  its  diversified  industries  and  abundant,  varied  and  elastic 
labor  supply,  offers  a  most  attractive  field. 

The  cost  of  living  in  Boston  is  not  high  relatively  to  other 
cities  of  like  proportions.  A  study  of  the  price  quotations  for 
thirty  staple  articles  of  food,  given  in  Bulletin  No.  77  of  the 
Federal  Bureau  of  Labor  in  1908,  shows  that  as  regards 
about  one-fifth  of  the  articles  mentioned,  prices  in  Boston 
were  low  as  compared  with  the  average  for  the  largest  cities ; 
in  about  three-fifths  of  the  cases  they  were  moderate ;  and  in 
about  one-fifth  of  the  cases  high.  Clothing  and  house  furnish- 
ings are  certainly  not  above  the  average  in  cost,  while  on 
meats  and  fish  Boston  prices  are  probably  somewhat  below 
the  mean  level.  The  rents  of  work-people's  dwellings,  while 
higher  than  in  the  smaller  cities,  are  moderate,  all  things  con- 
sidered; and  the  average  workingman  prefers  to  live  in  the 
city,  even  though  his  dwelling  costs  him  slightly  more,  be- 
cause of  the  greater  variety  and  cheapness  of  entertainment 
and  diversion. 

Factory  and  labor  legislation  in  Massachusetts,  while  ad- 
vanced, cannot  be  said  to  have  retarded  the  development  of 
industries,  and  in  fact  have  conferred  many  advantages,  not 
the  least  of  which  is  the  unusual  degree  of  contentment  that 
prevails  among  the  laboring  class.  It  has  been  found  particu- 
larly difficult  to  induce  an  artisan  to  leave  Boston.  He  likes 
to  live  here. 

Taxation  of  manufacturing  corporations  in  Boston  is 

[  215  1 


The  Industrial  Boston 

not  relatively  burdensome.  While  no  special  exemptions  are 
granted,  industries  are  not  affected  unfavorably  by  the  man- 
ner in  which  they  are  called  upon  to  contribute  for  the  sup- 
port of  the  State.  The  rate  of  taxation  in  Boston,  $16.40  per 
thousand  in  1910,  is  distinctly  lower  than  that  in  many  other 
large  cities,  and  considerably  below  the  average  for  the  cities 
of  the  State. 

Fuel  and  power  costs  in  Boston  are  comparatively  low,  by 
reason  of  the  heavy  receipts  of  tidewater  coal.  Steam  coal  is 
generally  about  $1  less  per  ton  than  at  inland  points  not  in 
or  near  the  coal  fields.  The  local  electric  power  company  fur- 
nishes current  for  manufacturing  purposes  at  remarkably 
low  rates  and  stands  ready  to  assist  the  manufacturer  in 
every  reasonable  way. 

The  financial  strength  of  Boston  is  widely  known  and  ad- 
mitted. The  per  capita  total  assessed  valuation  of  the  city  in 
1907  was  $2,159,  the  highest  in  the  group  of  fifteen  leading 
cities  with  a  population  of  over  300,000.  This  figure  is  a 
significant  index  to  the  accumulated  wealth  of  the  community. 
The  total  banking  capital  for  Massachusetts,  as  given  in  the 
Bank  Commissioner's  report  for  1909,  was  $1,749,826,025.29, 
of  which  some  $800,000,000,  or  only  a  little  less  than  half, 
was  in  Boston  banks.  The  city's  bank  clearances  in  1909 
reached  the  enormous  total  of  $8,440,382,263.  The  increase 
in  banking  capital  for  the  State  as  a  whole  during  1909  was 
over  $72,000,000.  But  it  is  not  necessary  to  go  on  piling  up 
figures  to  show  the  unquestioned  financial  resources  of  Bos- 
ton. For  half  a  century  the  city  has  been  a  mecca  for  promo- 
ters of  sound  enterprises  of  every  kind,  and  the  reservoirs  of 
capital  are  kept  full  to  overflowing  by  the  splendid  energy 
and  thrift  of  the  people.  Local  industry  need  never  halt  by 
reason  of  lack  of  capital. 

Such  are  the  industrial  conditions  in  Greater  Boston.  Such 
are  the  openings  for  manufacturers.  Along  the  metropolitan 
water  front,  from  Lynn  on  the  north  to  Weymouth  on  the 
south,  are  vast  reaches  of  tidewater  lands  and  flats,  easy  of 
connection  by  rail,  within  ready  access  to  abundant  supplies 
of  labor  of  every  kind  —  a  region  unsurpassed  in  the  world 

f  217  1 


New  England 

as  an  arena  for  an  almost  limitless  industrial  development  —  a 
development  favored  by  every  environing  condition,  created 
and  natural.  No  discerning  manufacturer,  seeking  a  site  for 
his  factory,  can  afford  to  omit  the  Greater  Boston  district 
from  his  calculations. 


WELLESLEY  HILLS  STATION,  ON   THE  BOSTON  &  ALBANY  RAILROAD 

Industry  and  trade  are  the  foundation  stones  of  a  city's 
growth  and  prosperity.  Without  them,  no  substantial  prog- 
ress, no  considerable  and  lasting  achievement  can  be  made. 
But  business  success,  material  welfare,  a  plentitude  of  the 
things  which  minister  to  the  physical  wants  are,  after  all, 
only  means  to  a  higher  end,  and  not  ultimate  ends  themselves. 
Their  existence  makes  possible  the  creation  of  all  those  in- 
strumentalities, physical  and  cultural,  which  render  the  life 
of  the  community  richer,  finer,  more  complete.  They  call  into 
being  a  class  of  people  who  have  won  a  competence,  who  en- 
joy some  measure  of  relaxation  from  the  fierce  competitive 
struggle,  and  a  leisure  that  enables  them  to  devote  themselves 

[  218  ] 


The  Industrial  Boston 

to  the  pursuit  of  artistic  and  educational  aims  and  to  the 
building  up  of  a  better  and  more  intelligent  civic  life.  The 
community  which  has  achieved  this  condition  represents  an 
advanced  stage  of  development.  Boston  has  probably  gone 
further  in  this  direction  than  any  other  city  in  the  country. 
This  very  fact  presupposes  a  high  degree  of  industrial  and 
commercial  development. 

None  but  a  wealthy  city  could  be  so  beautiful  as  Boston. 
Within  the  metropolitan  district  can  be  found  topography 
and  physical  surroundings  to  suit  every  taste.  Hills,  streams, 
valleys,  and  reaches  of  level  expanse,  afford  a  variety  of 
scenery  and  a  diversity  of  soil  and  site  that  provide  a  favor- 
ing environment  for  every  type  of  the  city's  activities,  and  a 
matchless  setting  for  the  community  as  a  whole.  Among  the 
low  hills  which  approach  the  harbor  from  all  sides  are  found 
residential  sections  unsurpassed  for  beauty  and  healthfulness 
in  the  world.  On  the  flat  lands  along  the  Charles,  the  Mystic 
and  the  Neponset,  and  rimming  the  shores  of  the  bay,  are 
found  the  busy,  prospering  factories  which  every  year  turn 
hundreds  of  millions  of  dollars  worth  of  varied  products  into 
the  channels  of  world  commerce.  On  the  central  peninsula, 
jutting  boldly  into  the  inner  harbors,  and  throwing  up 
the  bluff  eminence  of  Beacon  Hill  at  its  terminus,  lies  the 
heart  of  the  whole  region,  the  business  core  of  Greater 
Boston. 

Nature  surpassed  herself  in  molding  the  physical  environ- 
ment of  Boston.  The  dwellers  in  the  favored  region  have 
taken  full  advantage  of  her  bounty.  Located  in  the  very  heart 
of  the  city  is  the  superb  Charles  River  basin,  affording,  sum- 
mer and  winter,  manifold  opportunities  for  outdoor  recrea- 
tion. Within  the  metropolitan  district  ten  thousand  acres  of 
open  spaces,  linked  together  by  twenty -five  miles  of  continu- 
ous boulevards,  present  the  most  extensive  park  system  in  the 
country,  and  the  most  accessible.  The  excellence  of  the  high- 
ways about  Boston,  and  for  that  matter  throughout  the  State, 
is  so  widely  known  as  to  render  comment  unnecessary.  The 
region  is  a  paradise  for  those  who  drive  either  in  carriages  or 
automobiles.  Vast  metropolitan  systems  of  water  supply  and 

[  219  "1 


New  England 

sewage  disposal  also  provide  the  people  of  the  Greater  Bos- 
ton district  with  a  most  efficient  service  in  respect  to  these 
great  public  utilities  so  essential  to  comfortable  and  healthful 
living. 

But  the  charm  of  Boston  is  not  alone  found  in  the  extent 
and  excellence  of  its  public  works  and  in  the  superb  environ- 
ment which  Nature  has  provided.  It  must  be  sought,  too,  in 
the  traditions,  ideals  and  habits  of  the  people,  their  attain- 
ments in  education,  art  and  general  culture,  and  in  the  his- 
torical associations  inseparably  bound  up  with  the  life  of  the 
region.  All  these  blend  into  one  harmonious  composite  im- 
pression that  might  be  termed  the  spirit  or  the  personality 
of  the  city.  This  charm,  this  personality  of  Boston,  is  widely 
felt  and  acknowledged.  It  is  indefinable,  but  intensely  real.  All 
the  elements  of  the  city's  varied  life  compose  it.  Nor  is  it 
confined  to  any  one  class  or  section.  Every  one  privileged  to 
live  within  its  influence  feels  it.  Literally,  it  may  be  said  that 
many  people,  for  whom  circumstances  have  shaped  attractive 
opportunities  elsewhere,  choose  to  sacrifice  those  opportuni- 
ties for  the  sake  of  remaining  in  Boston.  Wage-earners  as  well 
as  those  with  salaries  and  independent  incomes  have  a  like 
experience.  The  artisan,  the  man  who  earns  a  moderate  in- 
come by  work  with  his  hands,  prefers  to  spend  that  income  in 
Boston,  because  it  yields  him  there  more  genuine  pleasure  and 
satisfaction  in  living  than  he  can  find  elsewhere. 


220 


Boston:  The  Next  Phase 


BOSTON  is  a  city  which  has  suffered  much  from  acute  defi- 
nition. Indeed,  this  has  been  carried  so  far  that  there  are 
today  properly  two  identical  cities  —  the  Boston  of  fact  and 
New  England,  and  the  Boston  of  fiction  as  known  to  the 
world.  The  second  of  these  two  is  an  honorable  tradition 
surely ;  but,  as  a  matter  of  truth,  it  is  great  legend,  and  to  be 
taken  as  such.  To  the  public  of  this  country,  and  even,  in 
lesser  degree,  before  the  nations,  Boston  has  been  too  much 
represented  in  the  garb  of  her  past.  That  garb  has  been  put 
^aside  at  home,  and  to  wear  it  abroad  is  both  affectation  and 
fraud.  Boston  is  no  longer  (even  if  it  ever  was)  an  American 
Athens;  it  is  a  complex  modern  city,  less  American,  if  the 
facts  were  known,  than  many  a  younger  sister  of  the  West ;  a 
field  of  social  experiment  partly  conscious,  partly  fortuitous, 
where  certain  racial,  municipal,  commercial  and  social  dramas 
are  enacting  themselves  for  those  who  have  the  eye  to  see. 

It  is  no  more  accurate  to  speak  of  Boston  as  separate  from 
New  England  than  to  speak  of  Boston  without  its  suburbs. 
Just  as  a  set  of  special  conditions  has  wrought  the  city  into 
a  huge  Suburbia,  another  set  of  conditions,  peculiar  to  the 
locality,  but  sharing  certain  elements  with  all  American  cities, 
has  wrought  in  the  city  a  profound  dependence  on  New  Eng- 
land, not  only  for  its  superficial  wealth,  but  for  that  ultimate 
wealth  of  any  city  or  any  nation  —  its  people.  In  years  past 
Boston  has  drawn  much  of  its  worldly  prosperity  from  the 
sea,  but  today,  in  a  human  sense,  the  strength  of  the  hills  is 
hers  also.  Of  the  thousands  of  dwellings  that  go  to  make  the 
sum  of  the  city's  population,  there  are  relatively  few  which 
do  not  send  their  roots  down  into  the  soil  in  Vermont,  in  New 
Hampshire,  in  Maine,  or  in  the  states  south  of  this  group. 

The  water  areas  have  classified  Boston  by  districts  with 
the  utmost  precision.  In  the  center  of  all  lies  the  business  dis- 

[  221  1 


New  England 

trict,  not  very  large,  but  well  concentrated,  and  minutely  full 
of  sharp  little  classifications  and  subdivisions  of  its  own.  At 
its  rim  lie  three  large  areas,  each  with  the  population  of  a 
moderate-sized  city;  —  the  North  End,  the  West  End  and 
the  South  End.  Across  bridge  and  ferry  are  sprawled  what 
may  be  termed  the  three  "  maritime  "  suburbs,  —  Charles- 
town,  East  Boston  and  South  Boston,  —  which  fall  into  a 
second  group  as  naturally  as  the  "  ends  "  into  a  first.  Outly- 
ing inland  are  the  regions  of  Dorchester  and  Roxbury,  origi- 
nally (and  until  not  long  since)  towns,  but  now  numerous 
cities,  quite  as  distinctive  of  character  as  any  of  the  other 
districts.  To  attempt  a  formula  for  this  scattered  and  diverse 
population  is  therefore  as  brisk  a  generalization  as  plenty 
more  of  which  literature  has  been  convicted  —  as  absurd  as 
the  indictment  of  a  nation.  There  remains  one  district  so 
sharply  defined,  and  of  so  unique  a  character,  as  often  to  pass- 
for  the  whole  of  Boston.  The  Back  Bay  and  its  people  have, 
so  far  as  such  a  thing  is  possible,  the  homogenity  which  is 
very  convenient  for  definition.  It  is,  indeed,  largely  the  relic 
of  the  great  tradition,  venerable,  dignified,  and  ancient  with 
what  antiquity  a  young  country  can  claim.  But  it  is  no  more 
exclusively  representative  of  Boston  today  than  the  South 
End,  and  in  certain  important  respects,  not  so  much  so ;  and 
it  is  certainly  nowhere  nearly  so  representative  of  the  Boston  of 
tomorrow  as  the  North  End  or  the  West  End,  for  the  simple 
reason  that  the  most  of  the  babies  are  coming  from  these 
more  humble  origins.  The  great  tradition  is  not  proportion- 
ately reproducing  itself,  and  it  behooves  us  therefore  the  more 
to  understand  the  actual  and  the  impending  Boston. 

The  North  End  is,  in  the  nature  of  things,  the  crucible  of 
the  new  citizen.  It  has  been  so  for  more  than  half  a  century  — 
the  metal  of  one  nation,  the  Irish,  has  passed  through  its  re- 
fining fire,  and  the  metal  of  a  second,  the  Italian,  is  now  pass- 
ing through  in  its  turn.  A  third  seems  likely  to  follow  before 
the  region  is  claimed  by  the  business  district.  Beginning  as  a 
residential  section  of  the  old  Yankee  families,  the  North  End 
passed,  after  the  Irish  famine,  to  the  Irish  immigrants.  Then 
came  the  Italians,  able  to  live  more  cheaply  than  the  Irish, 

f  222  1 


Boston:  The  Next  Phase 

and  the  district  became  theirs.  But  if  the  Jews  can  underbid 
them  for  the  space  before  business  grows  from  Washington 
street  to  the  wharves,  we  shall  see  another  change  of  owner- 
ship and  another  entire  change  of  conditions. 

Quite  as  important,  though  less  consecutive,  has  been  the 
trend  to  the  West  End.  Here,  too,  lived  the  "  solid  "  families 
of  the  elder  city,  and  the  grave  old  red-brick  houses  up  side 
streets  tell,  even  through  present  squalor,  the  dignified  life 
of  that  time.  Hither  came  the  lodging  population,  followed, 
in  part,  at  first,  by  the  immigrants.  Today  the  quarter  is 
divided  among  Jews,  Italians,  Irish,  Russians,  a  few  remain- 
ing Yankees,  and  a  numerous  population,  of  working  people 
who  live,  for  the  most  part  singly,  in  the  lodging  houses  on 
the  northern  slopes  of  Beacon  Hill.  Ultimately,  of  course, 
most  of  this  area  will  be  wanted  for  business,  but  at  present 
the  West  End  more  resembles  a  thickly  populated  rabbit 
hutch  where  few  but  the  politicians  and  a  scattering  of  social 
workers  feel  certain  of  what  they  are  dealing  with,  or  how  the 
dealing  is  to  be  done.  Of  all  the  quarters  to  be  considered  the 
West  End  is,  in  these  matters,  the  most  chaotic. 

When  the  growth  of  Boston,  the  city,  was  a  vigorous  and 
palpable  movement  by  the  middle  of  the  last  century,  what 
now  goes  by  the  name  of  the  South  End  came  into  being  under 
special  circumstances.  Already  Americans  had  begun  to  live, 
as  it  were,  with  one  foot  in  Europe,  and  England,  in  part,  in- 
structed us  in  the  planning  of  a  new  city  district.  The  South 
End  was  laid  out  with  a  generous  width  of  street,  with  fre- 
quent well-shaded  side  streets,  house  fronts  close  to  the  walks, 
and,  behind,  an  ample  space  for  yard  and  garden.  Every  few 
blocks  came  a  street  widened  to  the  admission  of  a  park  mod- 
eled after  the  "  garden  squares  "  of  London.  They  were,  and 
are,  surrounded  by  ranks  of  high  and  handsome  houses ;  dig- 
nity and  seclusion  was  theirs,  and  in  the  days  when  the  South 
End  was  still  the  substantial  residential  district,  the  city  had 
a  distinction  of  domestic  life  which  it  wants  today  in  its 
sprawling  suburbs.  The  South  End  that  was  made  a  compact 
and  accessible  abode  for  the  people  who  depend  on  Boston 
for  their  maintenance,  and  upon  whom  no  less  Boston  de- 

[  223  ] 


New  England 

pended.  It  still  permitted  the  people  who  made  their  wealth 
in  Boston  to  continue  residents  in  Boston.  If  this  set  of  con- 
ditions had  persisted  there  is  reason  to  think  that  the  city 
would  be  a  social  organism  different  from  the  present,  and 
probably  better.  Certainly,  it  would  have  been  a  more  urban 
community  and  probably  it  would  have  been  better  governed 
in  the  interval.  But  we  have  had  in  the  South  End  the  graphic 
spectacle  of  a  city  growing  too  fast  for  its  strength.  The 
"  made  land "  traveled  northward  as  far  as  Beacon  street 
and  the  life  of  the  quarter  was  drained  over  into  the  new 
houses  in  the  Back  Bay.  The  elevated  railway  came  down 
Washington  street  and  thundered  over  the  quiet  garden 
squares.  There  was  a  migration  of  the  families  who  had  built 
this  district  and  for  reasons  which  prevented  similar  families 
filling  their  pla*ces.  Not  all  the  South  End  went  to  the  Back 
Bay  by  any  means,  but  the  set  of  the  current  was  unmistak- 
able, and  the  end  came.  The  South  End  became  the  abode  of 
the  lodging  population  who  required  housing  within  the  five- 
cent  fare  limit,  or,  even  nearer,  within  walking  distance.  Many 
of  the  fine  old  streets  turned  squalid ;  others  turned  shabby ; 
some  persisted  in  a  career  of  frayed  gentility ;  and  to  this 
day  there  are  families  of  the  elder  time  still  in  the  South  End, 
unable  or  unwilling  to  leave  their  old  homes,  although  all  its 
neighboring  associations  are  gone. 

The  process  in  the  North  and  West  Ends  was  in  a  measure 
inevitable;  but  this  last,  undeniably  a  great  loss  to  the  city, 
might  possibly  have  been  avoided.  If  the  "  made-land  "  of 
Boston  had  been  allowed  to  fill  more  gradually,  there  is 
reason  to  suppose  that  the  part  of  the  population  which  went 
to  live  in  the  suburbs  might  have  been  kept  as  residents  of  the 
city,  and  our  whole  community  life  might  have  been  altered. 
Instead,  the  South  End,  a  bleak  waste  of  fine  old  houses  fallen 
on  poorer  days,  confronts  Boston  as  one  of  the  insistent  ques- 
tions, on  which  only  the  mere  beginnings  have  been  made. 
What  those  beginnings  are  is  the  test  of  one  of  Boston's  con- 
tributions to  sociological  study  in  the  contemporary  method. 
That  the  experimentation  has  not  gone  farther  is  due  to  the 
slowness  of  recognition  that  Boston  is  more  than  an  over- 


Boston:  The  Next  Phase 

grown  big  town  or  even  a  provincial  city.  Besides,  this  part 
of  the  community,  as  being  less  alien  and  more  Yankee,  is 
the  least  negligible.  Here  are  the  New  Englanders  from  the 
various  "  up-states."  It  is  here  that  the  youngsters  live  when 
they  begin  to  hew  out  homes  and  possibly  fortunes  in  the  city. 
No  city  can  afford  to  neglect  them,  much  less  ignore  them. 
Social  work  has  made  a  beginning  here ;  but  not  more  than  a 
beginning. 

It  is  not  too  much  to  say  that  this  inner  zone  of  the  city 
has,  by  various  processes,  brought  into  existence  the  outer 
zone  already  mentioned  —  Charlestown,  South  Boston,  and 
East  Boston  —  half  suburb,  half  city,  not  desperately  poor 
except  in  spots,  certainly  not  blatantly  rich;  containing 
many  good  homes  and  many  inferior;  thus  far  a  bulwark  of 
good  citizenship  in  serious  matters  but  problematical  as  to 
the  future.  A  group  of  social  workers  in  the  South  End 
studying  these  three  districts  have  hit  upon  the  accurate 
definition,"  The  Zone  of  Emergence."  As  the  family  dwelling 
in  the  inner  belt  nearer  the  city's  center  waxes  in  prosperity, 
it  moves  a  step  farther  out.  The  Irish  who  flocked  into  the 
North  End  in  the  years  following  the  famine  were  a  thrifty 
lot  —  in  a  few  years  more  Charlestown  was  largely  theirs  and 
is  today ;  or  others  went  to  South  Boston,  which  is  now  pre- 
dominantly Irish  and  relatively  prosperous.  The  process  is 
repeating  itself  with  Jew  and  Italian.  Already,  the  North  End 
has  sent  a  flourishing  colony  of  Italians  across  to  East  Bos- 
ton, and  the  West  End  is  continually  "  graduating  "  its  more 
fortunate  Jewish  families  to  the  outer  boundaries  of  the  city. 
East  Boston,  also,  contains  a  large  share  of  the  seafaring 
men  who  make  Boston  their  port;  men  of  Maine,  others  na- 
tive to  this  State,  and  a  prodigious  admixture  of  Nova 
Scotians  (it  is  estimated  that  nearly  a  quarter  of  the  popula- 
tion of  East  Boston  is  either  native  or  of  Nova  Scotian  ex- 
traction). These  three  cities — they  are  virtually  cities — are 
obviously  not  suited  to  the  settlement  work  which  lends  a 
helping  hand  in  the  more  congested  districts.  Neither  is  it 
well  that  these  people  should  be  left  altogether  to  their  own 
devices  which,  though  honest,  are  likely  also  to  be  clumsy. 

[  225  1 


New  England 

The  South  End  House,  which  is  making  this  study,  is  con- 
vinced that  something  must  be  evolved  half-way  between 
church  and  settlement  house ;  some  type  of  institution  which 
can  be  supported  both  from  the  outside  and  the  inside,  both 
by  people  of  means  and  by  the  families  actually  enjoying  the 
privileges  of  the  institution.  Just  what  this  is  to  be  is  not  yet 
certain.  Its  discovery,  if  made  in  Boston,  will  constitute  one 
of  the  most  important  contributions  of  this  city  to  social  ex- 
perimentation, since  these  conditions,  while  presented  to  Bos- 
'ton  under  certain  special  guises,  are  not  peculiar  to  a  single 
locality.  They  are  manifesting  themselves  elsewhere,  and  any 
advance  here  means  an  advance  all  along  the  line. 

Completing  the  roster  of  city  districts  come  Dorchester, 
Roxbury,  West  Roxbury,  and  Brighton,  residential  areas, 
practically  suburbs,  lying  to  the  westward  or  southwest,  now 
mainly  the  abode  of  the  well-to-do  or  moderately  well-to-do, 
and  rather  to  be  looked  on  as  the  support  of  social  endeavor 
than  its  field.  They  partake,  in  a  manner,  of  the  general 
characteristics  of  Suburbia,  the  social,  commercial,  and  polit- 
ical bearing  of  which  are  still  to  be  considered. 

Such,  then,  in  outline  is  the  composition  of  the  Boston  of 
today,  and  any  one  attempting  to  define  it  in  accordance  with 
the  terms  of  the  old  "  literary  legend  "  will  either  be  obliged 
to  drop  all  of  the  city  except  the  Back  Bay,  or  else  be  con- 
victed of  ignorance  and  slap-dash  judgments.  Such  an  enor- 
mous mass  of  rubbish  has  been  written  about  the  old  notion 
that  it  seemed,  in  a  serious  consideration  of  the  city  that  is 
and  is  to  be,  necessary  and  important  to  understand  the  true 
elements  of  the  community. 

In  certain  of  the  institutions  of  the  city,  nevertheless,  abide 
the  character  of  that  elder  Boston,  forethoughtful,  fair,  con- 
scientious, mindful  of  man's  duty  to  himself  here  and  here- 
after. Sunday  is  still  a  Sabbath,  as  the  complete  desertion  of 
the  business  streets  on  that  day  will  attest ;  a  score  of  years 
ago  the  city  drove  out  its  gamblers ;  during  the  past  year  the 
Police  Department  issued  a  record  of  the  enforcement  of  the 
laws  against  sexual  immorality  which  made  edifying  reading. 
As  long  as  certain  fundamental  defects  persist  in  modern  so- 

\  226  1 


Boston:  The  Next  Phase 

ciety,  the  police  will  always  be  at  war  with  a  vice  as  old  as 
monogamy  and  older,  but  the  police  of  Boston  have,  at  least, 
had  no  resort  to  the  usual  compromises,  whether  of  license,  seg- 
regation, or  official  blindness.  In  the  crusade  against  Tuber- 
culosis, Boston  has  been  in  the  van ;  has  made,  and  is  making, 
contributions  to  the  general  sum  of  our  knowledge  of  methods 
for  controlling  and  checking  the  disease  that  cannot  be  profit- 
ably neglected  by  other  cities.  Numerous  small  signs  tell  the 
observant  stranger  that  there  is,  after  all,  a  highly  sensitized 
public  conscience  at  work,  and  if  these  failed,  he  would  need 
but  to  consult  the  list  of  societies  and  institutions  in  the  city 
directory  to  note  the  enormous  body  of  benevolent  work  which 
is  being  carried  on  each  year  by  bequest,  endowment,  or 
cooperation.  Forgetting  the  "  legend "  altogether,  we  may 
say  that  scores  of  years  —  amounting  to  two  centuries  —  of 
dwelling  on  the  serious  aspects  of  things  have  bred  in  the 
reflecting  (and  the  will-making)  part  of  the  population,  an 
abiding  sense  of  responsibility  to  fellow-men  which  is  today 
legible  in  the  imposing  brick  and  mortar  of  hundreds  (it  is 
said  advisedly)  of  beneficent  institutions. 

Since  it  is  obviously  out  of  the  question  to  trace  the  origins 
and  sketch  the  features  even  of  a  small  proportion  of  these,  let 
certain  of  the  more  characteristic  and  those  principally  far- 
reaching  of  influence  and  scope  be  chosen  as  representative. 

When  American  cities  are  named  in  the  order  of  their  con- 
tributions to  public  improvement,  Boston's  claim  to  mention 
is  the  system  of  public  parks.  Western  cities  which  have 
grown  too  fast  for  their  beauty,  like  young  boys  long  in  the 
leg  and  lean  in  the  shoulder,  have  begun  to  think  and  talk  of 
planning  boulevard,  street,  square,  and  vista.  The  prospectus 
pamphlets  which,  notably,  St.  Louis  and  Chicago  have  issued, 
contain,  by  way  of  proof  that  these  results  exist  outside  of 
the  brain  of  a  landscape  architect,  descriptions  or  photo- 
graphs of  the  Metropolitan  Park  system  of  Massachusetts. 
It  is  doubtful  whether  the  project  originated  in  Massachu- 
setts. Similar  schemes  for  beautifying  cities  have  been  prac- 
ticed abroad.  These  experiments  are  a  matter  of  general 
knowledge  and  such  local  applications  are  more  generally  a 

[  227  1 


New  England 

matter  of  collective  rather  than  individual  effort.  It  is  better 
so  —  one-man  institutions  rarely  have  the  vitality  that  be- 
longs to  a  public  impulse.  The  originality  here  consisted  in 
the  ability  to  foresee  the  value  and  need  of  such  reservations. 
Their  purpose  was  avowedly  benevolent  "  to  make  available 
to  the  inhabitants  open  spaces  for  exercise  and  recreation." 
In  all  such  undertakings  there  is  an  issue  between  esthetics 
and  ethics ;  whether  the  institution  shall  be  conducted  for  the 
sake  of  public  beauty  or  public  welfare.  The  monarchs  of 
Europe  became  landscape  gardeners  for  the  sake  of  esthetics ; 
they  gardened  their  private  grounds  which,  in  the  due  course 
of  time  and  democracy,  became  available  for  the  pleasure  of 
their  subjects.  But  in  the  Metropolitan  Park  system,  public 
welfare  was  the  issue  at  the  start.  Here  was  another  contri- 
bution of  Massachusetts  to  the  democratic  ideal.  Esthetics 
were  secondary  to  ethics ;  the  good  of  the  many  was  the  end, 
and  beauty  was  the  means.  Here,  we  are  quite  justified  in  say- 
ing, the  pure  brew  of  the  New  England  "  conscience  "  turned 
"  social  consciousness  "  is  seen  at  work.  We  were  only  justi- 
fied in  this  expenditure  of  public  money  if  the  public  itself 
was  chiefly  to  benefit,  whereas  many  a  European  monarch  of 
today  would  feel  that  merely  to  adorn  capital  and  glorify 
himself  is  a  justifiable  end  in  itself.  These  forces  and  impulses 
are  larger  than  the  individuals  they  animate.  It  is  not  to  be 
supposed  that  the  discreet  and  able  gentlemen  who  originated 
and  executed  the  scheme  of  metropolitan  parks  were  con- 
scious of  serving  a  national  destiny,  or  even  of  complying 
with  the  spirit  of  a  local  tradition,  for  great  historical  move- 
ments can  frequently  be  traced  to  personal  whim.  But  this 
does  not  belittle  the  magnitude  of  the  forces  in  operation  or 
discredit  their  authority. 

Benevolence  can  overreach  itself,  nullifying  much  of  its 
helpfulness  by  duplication,  as  two  clergymen,  each  more  bent 
on  saving  a  man's  soul  his  own  way  than  concerned  that 
the  soul  should  be  saved.  Some  distance  back  the  multiplica- 
tion of  charities  in  Boston  required  some  safeguard  against 
duplication,  unprofitable  rivalry,  and  the  opportunities  for 
fraud  among  applicants.  The  Associated  Charities  of  Boston, 

[  228  ] 


Boston:  The  Next  Phase 

dating  to  1881,  are  at  once  an  institution  characteristic  of  the 
thrift  and  thoroughness  of  the  community  and  one  which  has 
a  beneficial  influence  on  the  corresponding  situation  in  other 
cities.  The  nature  of  the  organization  is  easily  explained  by 
its  "  objects  "  thus  formally  stated: 

"  To  secure  the  concurrent  and  harmonious  action  of  the 
different  charities  in  Boston,  in  order 

"  To  raise  the  needy  above  need  of  relief,  prevent  begging 
and  imposition,  and  diminish  pauperism ; 

"  To  encourage  thrift,  self-dependence,  and  industry 
through  friendly  intercourse; 

"  To  prevent  children  from  growing  up  paupers." 

Methods  are  briefly  indicated.  A  provision  that  the  case 
of  every  applicant  for  relief  shall  be  thoroughly  investigated ; 
another  for  a  means  of  confidential  exchange  of  information 
between  the  Overseers  of  the  Poor,  charitable  societies  and 
agencies  and  benevolent  individuals ;  and  a  stipulation  to 
make  all  relief  conditional  upon  good  conduct  and  progress. 
Employment  is,  wherever  possible,  to  be  offered  instead  of 
alms,  and  poor  families  are  to  have  the  counsel  of  a  friendly 
visitor.  This  able  formulation  of  theory  and  method  has 
served  other  cities  as  well  as  it  has  served  Boston.  Its  passive 
influence  has  been  as  salutary  as  its  active  undertakings.  Its 
organization  of  the  city  into  districts  is  the  story  with  the 
moral. 

The  Boston  institutions  chosen  for  this  study  have  been 
selected  for  their  bearing  on  the  only  real  and  ultimate  wealth 
of  a  city  —  its  human  resources.  This  is,  oddly,  a  recent  dis- 
covery; and  with  all  the  multitude  of  Boston's  social  institu- 
tions, of  which  only  a  few  examples  can  be  treated  for  the 
present  purpose,  this  fundamental  fact  has  been  grasped  but 
vaguely.  A  distinguished  lawyer,  speaking  in  behalf  of  a  re- 
cent social  movement  in  the  city,  pointed  out  that  for  genera- 
tions the  Yankee  genius  has  been  exerted  on  the  mechanical 
device  and  the  material  product — on  the  apparatus  of  living, 
not  on  life.  We  now  come  to  the  point  where  we  must  leave 
mechanisms  for  a  season  and  attempt  to  perfect  our  human 
institutions.  It  is  a  large  order,  and  Boston  has  barely  begun. 


New  England 

Still,  if,  forgetting  the  "  legend  "  and  recognizing  the  char- 
acter of  the  city  as  it  is,  we  can  only  be  sure  that  Boston  has 
begun,  the  beginning,  as  the  Greeks  say,  is  half  of  the  whole. 
Such  an  attempt  has  been  made  by  the  Associated  Charities ; 
webbing  the  city  with  the  skein  of  their  district  organiza- 
tions, sixteen  of  them,  in  the  quarters  where  most  badly  needed. 
The  territory  is  vast,  and  the  population  mounts  into  the 
hundreds  of  thousands.  It  is  idle  and  dishonest  to  pretend 
that  the  Associated  Charities  reach  more  than  a  small  per- 
centage of  the  deserving  poor.  Intimacy  with  any  single  dis- 
trict included  in  the  organization  is  information  of  that.  The 
point  is,  that  by  this  federation  and  systematized  method  of 
work,  the  same  amount  of  effort  is  made  to  go  many  times  as 
far.  This  is  the  solid  contribution  of  this  institution. 

Most  obvious  of  any  public  relation  is  that  between  prop- 
erty owner  and  paid  guard.  For  so  much  I  pay  a  man  to 
watch  over  my  goods.  Now  police  establishment  is  only  possi- 
ble in  a  highly  organized  and  well  criticised  state  of  society. 
The  folly  and  danger  of  a  large  standing  army  was  perfectly 
recognized  in  medieval  times.  But  sentry  duty  is  as  old  as 
civilization.  As  a  result  we  take  our  police  for  granted,  espe- 
cially in  Boston.  The  reasons  will  bear  inspection. 

"  The  governor,"  says  an  act  of  the  Massachusetts  legisla- 
ture, "  shall,  with  the  advice  and  consent  of  the  council,  ap- 
point a  single  police  commissioner  for  the  city  of  Boston." 
Five  years  is  his  term  of  office ;  his  annual  salary  of  six  thou- 
sand dollars  is  a  safe  figure  in  many  ways.  It  is  not  enough  to 
excite  the  cupidity  of  wealth,  and  it  enables  a  man  of  moder- 
ate  means  to  make  the  private  sacrifices  necessary  for  per- 
forming the  duties  of  this  office.  All  expenses  of  the  depart- 
ment —  maintenance  of  buildings,  pay  of  police,  and  of  em- 
ployes —  are,  of  course,  borne  by  the  city  of  Boston  upon 
the  requisition  of  the  commissioner.  The  commissioner's  rec- 
ords must  be  open  at  all  times  to  the  inspection  of  the  gov- 
ernor and  the  mayor  of  the  city.  He  is  answerable ;  but  elec- 
tions come  and  elections  go,  while  the  department  of  police 
remains  firm. 

Not  so  many  years  ago  the  social  settlement  was  to  save 

[  230  ] 


Boston:  The  Next  Phase 

us.  We  put  our  faith  in  it,  and  also  a  generous  amount  of  our 
money.  We  tossed  our  youth  into  it  and  bade  our  clergy  fol- 
low. Mistakes  were  made  and  inspirations  were  put  to  work. 
Here  and  there,  what  we  were  pleased  to  regard  as  miracles 
were  wrought.  Today  we  are  less  delirious  about  settlements, 
and  more  intelligent.  Certain  things  they  can  do  for  a  neigh- 
borhood as  no  other  agency ;  other  things  they  cannot  do. 
Neither  can  they  do  the  same  services  for  different  districts. 
In  Boston  there  is  reason  to  suppose  that  all  the  settlement 
houses  that  are  to  be  established  for  the  present  are  already 
in  existence.  The  North  End  has  them,  and  the  West  End. 
They  are  in  the  South  End,  and  in  the  quasi-suburbs.  Sixteen 
houses  are  included  in  the  working  federation  of  the  groups. 
The  settlements  are  cited  for  a  special  reason.  They  are 
by  no  means  peculiar  to  Boston,  and  probably  they  have 
reached  a  higher  development  in  New  York  and  Chicago, 
where  more  was  at  stake.  But  they  deal  with  conditions 
common  to  all  large  cities.  What  is  perfected  here  can  be 
adopted  elsewhere;  and,  be  it  remembered,  when  they  began 
we  were  so  sure  the  thing  had  been  found.  We  see  now  that 
it  will  not  be  found  at  a  single  strike,  in  the  nugget,  but  must 
be  laboriously  panned  —  which  applies  to  all  human  ad- 
vance. And  the  settlements  are  now  arriving  at  a  crucial 
point  which  is  useful  to  record.  They  are  relatively  where  the 
charities  were  in  1881,  and  whither  those  charities  are  again 
returning.  They  want  federation  —  an  association  for  sup- 
port and  activity  more  intimate  and  more  effectual  than  that 
of  the  present.  They  are  waiting,  they  say,  for  an  adequate 
response  from  the  public.  But  such  things  have  to  be  fought 
for.  At  present,  each  is  struggling  for  its  individual  support 
from  its  individual  clientele.  Let  them  make  common  cause; 
let  them  let  it  appear,  and  the  support  will  come  of  itself. 
People  are  not  so  slow  to  catch  a  drift,  if  it  is  genuine,  and 
they  are  mostly  grateful  for  any  plausible  project  that  will 
satisfy  their  cravings  to  render  a  visible  and  concrete  benefit 
to  their  fellows.  This  is  important,  and  it  is  necessary,  for  it 
is  the  logical  next  step  of  a  force  which  a  modern  city  can- 
not afford  to  leave  out  of  its  reckoning.  The  advance  is  in 

f  231  J 


New  England 

the  main  direction  —  that  of  organization.  And  organization  in 
the  larger  sense  is  precisely  the  task  which  confronts  the  shift- 
ing, changing,  renewing,  altering  city  of  Boston  as  it  is  today. 
The  lesson,  the  threat,  the  promise  of  the  future  are  all  in 
those  shabbily  genteel  streets  of  the  South  End.  The  houses 
have  style  and  character;  feature  is  theirs,  and  dignity.  They 
were  built  and  lived  in  once  by  people  of  means  and  discrimi- 
nation. City  or  not,  it  was  a  neighborly  place;  families  in- 
terchanged visits  and  married  son  to  daughter.  In  the  same 
period  Charlestown,  East  Boston,  and  South  Boston  had  de- 
veloped a  similar  social  distinction.  It  was  not  a  season  of 
aristocracy  but  of  reputable  commonwealth  —  the  very  per- 
sonification of  the  Massachusetts  —  or  shall  we  say  the  New 
England  ?  —  idea.  If  that  life  had  continued  as  it  began,  the 
tone  and  the  administration  of  Boston  affairs  would  be  very 
different  today.  We  would  be  an  urban  community  instead 
of  a  suburban.  The  householders  of  the  city  would  still  have 
their  country  seats  for  summer  occupancy,  and  their  votes 
in  Boston.  Whither  they  scattered  when  the  neighborhood 
slump  began  is  part  common  knowledge  and  the  rest  an  easy 
guess.  A  relatively  small  proportion  migrated  into  the  Back 
Bay.  A  much  larger  proportion  sought  the  suburbs,  put 
their  faith  in  transportation  —  which  the  railroads  pres- 
ently found  it  profitable  to  fulfill,  —  and  ceased  to  be  voting 
members  of  the  Boston  community.  They  still  make  their 
money  in  Boston,  and  in  Boston  spend  it,  but  they  sleep  — 
and  vote  —  outside,  in  one  of  the  two  score  of  bedrooms  to  the 
city.  Their  interests,  their  conversation,  their  aspirations,  their 
ideals  and  their  manners  are  suburban ;  and  the  inj  ustice  of  it 
is  that  they  are  not  the  ones  to  suffer  for  it.  In  many  ways  they 
are  better  off.  Those  who  pay  are,  as  usual,  and  by  the  ines- 
capable logic  of  facts,  the  poor  who  remain  in  the  city.  Ulti- 
mately, of  course,  unless  the  metropolitan  district  fuses  into  a 
single  community,  this  suburban  selfishness  is  bound  to  be  its 
own  defeat,  since  the  house  is  divided  against  itself. 


232 


Transportation 


TRANSPORTATION,  itself  one  of  the  industries,  has  from 
crude  beginnings  spread  its  veins  and  arteries  over  wide 
areas,  making  possible  the  development  of  manufacturing 
and  agriculture,  and  increasing  real  estate  values  in  natu- 
rally advantageous  but  otherwise  impossible  localities.  Its 
prime  requisites  are  safety,  speed,  and  a  capacity  to  grow 
with  complex  industrial  development  while  maintaining  ade- 
quate connections  between  the  manifold  centers  which  special- 
ize in  various  forms  of  production.  It  must  consist  of  main 
lines  connecting  all  the  important  points,  and  sufficient  feed- 
ing lines  running  into  sparsely  settled  districts.  Between  the 
railroads,  the  harbors,  and  the  navigable  rivers,  adequate 
connections  must  always  be  maintained,  to  enable  speedy  and 
economical  interchange  of  freight ;  also  for  the  advantageous 
interchange  of  traffic  between  the  lines  operated  by  different 
companies.  From  the  large  cities  as  radial  centers  there 
must  run  in  every  direction  transportation  lines  for  distri- 
bution of  the  various  products  of  different  sections. 

Boston  is  the  transportation  center  of  New  England,  and 
from  that  point  radiate  the  most  important  water  and  rail- 
road lines.  Within  a  fifty-mile  radius  of  Boston  there  is  a 
greater  railroad  mileage,  per  square  mile  and  per  capita, 
than  within  any  other  fifty-mile  radius  in  the  world.  Through- 
out the  entire  southern  section  of  New  England,  which  is  cov- 
ered with  a  close  network  of  railroads  with  branches  running 
in  every  direction,  are  found  manufacturing  industries  of 
every  description,  many  of  them  surpassing  in  their  lines  any 
in  the  world  in  quantity  and  quality  of  output.  This  is  not 
the  result  of  a  preconceived  plan  on  the  part  of  either  the 
manufacturers  or  the  transportation  companies.  Nature  en- 
dowed this  section  with  abundant  waterpowers  and  fertile 
lands,  and  gradually,  as  these  were  harnessed  and  developed 

f  233  1 


New  England 

and  small  industries  began  to  grow  and  prosper,  transporta- 
tion took  on  larger  life  and  developed  hand  in  hand  with  a 
mighty  industrial  growth  that  has  never  been  equaled  in  the 
history  of  any  country.  As  the  demands  for  the  products  of 
these  mills  and  shops  and  lands  grew,  and  new  markets  were 
opened  in  the  West  and  South,  it  became  necessary  to  find 
means  for  handling  goods  and  produce  quickly  and  econom- 
ically. It  was  then  that  the  railroads  pushed  outside  and  spur 
tracks  to  deliver  at  the  doors  of  the  factories  their  raw  mate- 
rials and  take  away  the  finished  product,  and  built  stations 
in  the  agricultural  districts. 

Neither  transportation  systems  nor  the  industries  of  New 
England  have  yet  reached  the  height  of  their  development. 
They  are  at  the  threshold  of  the  possibilities  which  their 
natural  location  has  placed  within  their  power.  This  is 
made  evident  in  the  abundant  waterpowers  that  have  not  yet 
been  utilized,  and  the  large  undeveloped  areas  of  land  that 
lie  along  the  trunk  lines  of  the  railroads,  possessing  great 
diversity  of  natural  resources  and  capable  of  great  produc- 
tivity. There  is  however  a  weak  link  in  this  chain  of  indus- 
trial and  commercial  development.  The  farmer  has  failed  to 
take  advantage,  to  the  extent  that  the  manufacturer  has,  of 
the  inventive  genius  of  man  in  creating  facilities  for  taking 
to  market  the  products  of  his  land  and  labor.  The  present 
facilities  in  New  England  for  carrying  farm  produce  to  its 
markets,  the  best  in  the  world,  should  awaken  a  new  interest 
in  the  minds  of  those  seeking  to  invest  capital  and  skill  where 
results  are  sure  to  prove  commensurate  with  intelligent  effort. 

As  early  as  1835  we  find  transportation  services  adver- 
tised. This  was  in  the  days  of  the  stage  coach.  Now,  with  all 
the  modern  forms  of  travel,  we  find  a  department  maintained 
by  every  passenger-carrying  company  for  acquainting  the 
traveler  or  pleasure-seeker  with  the  different  routes  of  travel 
and  the  suitable  localities  in  the  mountains  or  at  the  seashore 
for  summer  outings,  and  for  hunting  and  fishing  in  the  for- 
ests and  lakes  of  the  northern  states.  This  service  also  ex- 
tends to  the  business  departments,  rendering  assistance  to 
corporations  desirous  of  locating  factories,  with  the  ability 

f  234  1 


Transportation 

to  furnish  information  concerning  the  special  advantages 
that  are  to  be  found  in  the  different  localities  along  their 
lines.  The  "  barren  and  rockbound  "  idea,  that  has  for  gen- 
erations furnished  jests  for  the  scoffer  and  despairing  songs 
for  the  bard,  has  in  this  way  been  dealt  a  death  blow  by  the 
transportation  companies,  to  whose  activities  unmistakable 
signs  attest  that  the  tide  has  definitely  turned  toward  New 
England's  undeveloped  opportunities. 

Going  back  to  the  early  period  of  the  settlement  of  New 
England,  which  the  historians  tell  us  teems  with  traditions 
of  hardships  endured  in  the  effort  for  a  mere  existence,  we 
find  the  crudest  possible  means  of  transportation.  First  of  all 
was  the  boat,  by  mean.s  of  which  the  early  pioneers  spread 
out  and  formed  settlements  along  the  coasts  and  rivers.  Arti- 
sans for  the  most  part,  wherever  they  settled  they  soon  har- 
nessed the  waterpowers  for  manufacturing,  and  then  came 
the  demand  for  other  channels  of  distribution.  The  old  road- 
ways with  their  swinging  gates  covered  with  pikes,  consti- 
tuted the  first  inland  ways,  or  "  turnpikes,"  over  which  horse- 
drawn  vehicles  of  the  crudest  sort  were  slowly  moved.  A 
demand  for  any  essential  to  the  progress  of  civilization  and 
human  advancement  has  never  yet  failed  to  be  met.  So  at  this 
time,  when  development  of  the  natural  resources  of  the  in- 
terior seemed  advantageous  to  the  growth  of  the  country  and 
the  progress  of  the  people,  and  inland  channels  for  more 
rapid  transportation  of  the  products  of  the  new  industries 
that  were  beginning  to  specialize  were  demanded,  the  steam 
railroad  came  to  meet  the  need. 

The  transportation  problem  of  New  England  is  different 
from  that  of  any  other  section  of  the  United  States,  or  any 
other  country  in  the  world.  It  grew  as  the  New  England 
towns  grew,  as  the  streets  of  Boston  grew.  It  grew  with 
the  development  of  the  railroad  idea  and  with  the  growth  of 
the  section — haltingly,  spasmodically,  without  plan  for  the 
present  or  provision  for  the  future.  At  the  very  first  there 
were  no  railroads,  of  course.  There  were  only  the  stage 
coaches  for  passengers  and  the  water  routes  and  teams  for 
freight.  When  the  railroads  came  their  progress  was  very 

f  235  1 


Transportation 

timid.  They  were  built  here  a  few  miles  and  there  a  few  miles, 
with  no  idea  of  ultimate  extent  or  possible  consolidation.  The 
growth  of  the  railroad  idea  and  the  growth  of  the  country 
were  more  or  less  synchronous,  and  the  development  was  not 
unlike  the  development  of  business  needing  the  transporta- 
tion services  of  railroads.  The  great  change  came  with  the 
consolidation  of  several  independent  lines  into  what  was  the 
germ  of  the  great  system  that  now  serves  almost  the  whole 
of  New  England,  the  New  York,  New  Haven  &  Hartford 
company.  This  was  in  1873.  Then  there  was  the  Boston  & 
Maine,  which  had  gathered  in  several  independent  lines,  and 
was  preparing  to  take  over  several  more  important  ones. 
The  period  beginning  about  that  time  saw  the  railroads  of 
New  England  enter  upon  the  most  strenuous  phase  of  their 
existence.  The  systems  were  big  in  name  and  in  money-making 
power,  but  their  trackage  and  equipment  was  inadequate,  and 
steadily  became  more  inadequate. 

"  In  compact  New  England  the  intensive  character  of  its 
development  had  impeded  the  improvement  of  transportation 
facilities  along  modern  lines.  The  dense  population,  socially 
and  industrially  the  most  highly  organized  in  the  country, 
and  demanding  a  correspondingly  efficient  service,  was,  by  very 
reason  of  its  advanced  standing,  long  compelled  to  put  up  with 
a  low-grade  service.  This  was  because  of  the  many  difficulties 
and  the  excessive  costs  involved.  In  one  respect,  however,  the 
ground  was  prepared  for  the  change.  The  process  of  consoli- 
dation and  unification  were  well-nigh  complete."  * 

In  1840  there  were  only  426  miles  of  railroad  in  New  Eng- 
land. The  principal  lines  were  those  running  from  Boston  to 
Worcester,  Providence,  and  Lowell.  In  ten  years  there  had 
been  an  increase  to  nearly  3,000  miles.  New  lines  and  con- 
solidations have  rapidly  followed.  In  Massachusetts  alone 
are  carried  nearly  150,000,000  passengers  a  year,  while  the 
freight  hauled  approximates  50,000,000  tons.  With  the 
growth  of  the  railroad  there  came  rapid  and  important 
changes  in  some  of  the  old  centers  of  population.  New  and 

1  This  passage,  and  several  others  quoted  in  this  chapter,  is  from  an  article 
by  Mr.  Sylvester  Baxter,  published  in  The  Outlook. 

\  237  1 


New  England 

enterprising  cities  sprang  up  in  what  had  been  isolated  locali- 
ties. Previous  to  this  there  had  been  in  New  England  no  in- 
land towns  of  over  4,500  population.  In  Worcester  we  now 
have  the  largest  inland  city  in  the  world,  and  many  other 
cities  and  large  towns  have  grown  to  large  proportions  as 
the  result  of  railroad  extension.  The  growth  of  these  inland 
towns  has  helped  to  develop  the  surrounding  farming  terri- 
tory by  bringing  excellent  markets  for  their  products  within 
easy  reach  of  the  farms.  The  period  of  greatest  development 
of  the  railroad  was  between  1830  and  1850.  Since  then  it  has 
practically  superceded  all  other  forms  of  transportation. 

At  about  the  time  some  of  the  great  transcontinental  rail- 
roads were  being  planned  and  built,  and  the  West  was  being 
considered  with  reference  to  its  potential  as  well  as  its  pres- 
ent needs,  the  railroad  problem  in  New  England  had  assumed 
its  most  perplexing  and  difficult  phase.  What  had  been  done 
had  not  been  properly  planned  with  reference  either  to  the 
future  of  the  section  or  of  the  railroads.  The  tracks  and  the 
equipment  were  old  in  model  and  not  adequate  for  the  traffic 
then  offering.  The  industrial  conception  of  railroads  had 
radically  changed  since  these  were  built,  and  there  had  been 
such  improvement  in  building  and  operation  as  to  make  them 
out  of  date  and  incapable  of  performing  the  service  demanded 
of  them.  The  separate  roads  had,  many  of  them,  been  pros- 
perous, and  the  terms  of  consolidation  or  lease  required  that 
the  rate  of  earnings  be  maintained.  The  needs  of  the  section, 
though  increasing,  were  not  to  be  closely  estimated.  Rail- 
roading had  not  become  the  finished  science  it  is  now,  and 
financial  interests  were  neither  able  nor  willing  to  advance 
the  enormous  sums  of  money  they  now  unhesitatingly  fur- 
nish. The  new  managers  of  the  augmented  companies  had  be- 
fore them  a  series  of  very  stiff  problems.  It  happens  that  the 
development  of  transportation  in  New  England  has  fallen 
largely  to  the  initiative  of  the  New  Haven  company.  While 
the  Boston  &  Maine  has  become,  through  consolidation  and 
leases,  a  great  system,  it  has  been  operated  upon  a  different 
plan  than  the  New  Haven,  partly  because  of  inherent  difficul- 
ties, onerous  financial  burdens,  and  less  rapid  growth  of  the 

f  238  1 


Transportation 

section  it  served,  and  partly  because  of  the  different  methods 
of  its  managers. 

"  At  that  time  the  New  Haven  had  already  become  a  big 
consolidated  system.  '  Big '  well  characterizes  a  New  England 
railway  operating  more  than  four  thousand  miles  of  track. 
Considering  density  of  population  served,  intensity  of  traffic, 
frequency  of  train  movements,  and  volume  of  business,  this 
is  the  equivalent  of  at  least  a  sixteen-thousand-mile  system 
beyond  the  Mississippi.  The  New  Haven  holds  the  record 
among  American  railways  for  the  largest  dividends  declared 
consecutively  through  a  long  period  —  dating  from  the  or- 
ganization of  the  company  as  the  New  York,  New  Haven 
&  Hartford  in  1873.  Consequently  the  inertia  of  'Let  well 
enough  alone ! '  had  been  difficult  to  overcome,  but  it  was  seen 
that  not  to  develop  the  traffic  possibilities  of  the  property  by 
liberal  expenditures  backed  by  the  highest  engineering  skill 
and  administrative  ability  would  mean  atrophy.  In  1903  the 
capital  stock  was  $70,897,300.  The  stockholders  had  voted 
an  increase  to  $77,000,000.  Later  on,  the  full  $100,000,000 
legislatively  authorized  was  issued.  And  in  less  than  six  years 
$116,288,000  was  spent  for  improvements.  It  is  doubtful  if 
the  head  of  any  great  railway  has  ever  before  faced  such  a 
diversity  of  transportation  problems  as  became  the  task  of 
Mr.  Mellen  when  he  came  back  to  the  New  Haven:  Vast  re- 
construction in  tracks  and  terminals ;  enormous  additions  to 
the  equipment ;  readj  usting  relationships  with  the  trunk  lines, 
and  formulating  new  policies  in  behalf  of  New  England,  as 
well  as  strengthening  his  company's  own  position  as  a  na- 
tional factor  in  transportation ;  developing  a  broad  policy 
in  the  local  field  occupied  by  the  trolley-line  services ;  improv- 
ing and  extending  the  company's  marine  lines ;  opening  up 
new  connections  with  the  systems  beyond  the  Hudson ;  ener- 
getically  dealing  with  coal-carrying  agencies  to  safeguard  the 
fuel-supply  services  vital  to  New  England's  industries ;  great 
terminal  improvements  in  New  York  and  elsewhere ;  electri- 
fication on  a  scale  that  meant  revolution  in  motive  power  con- 
ditions. The  New  Haven  is  much  more  than  a  railway  com- 
pany. In  marine  transportation  it  does  a  large  and  profitable 

[  239  1 


New  England 

business.  It  practically  controls  the  trolley  services  in  Con- 
necticut and  Rhode  Island.  Through  the  charter  rights  of  ac- 
quired street-railway  properties  in  Connecticut  it  inciden- 
tally supplies  electricity  and  gas  for  light,  heat,  and  power. 
New  York  City  locally  constitutes  the  greatest  market  for 
New  England  industries  and  is  also  a  chief  gateway  to  the 
markets  west  and  south.  This  circumstance  has  developed  an 
extraordinarily  expeditious  freight  service.  A  piece  of  leather 
one  day  converted  into  shoes  in  a  New  England  factory  may 
the  next  day  take  its  place  on  the  shelf  of  the  New  York 
retailer." 

More  than  $116,000,000  has  already  been  expended  for 
improvements  on  the  system,  not  including  $43,268,000  for 
new  equipment,  and  the  rest  of  the  great  sum  for  improve- 
ments that  make  great  economies  in  operation  possible,  and 
that  enable  the  road  to  handle  the  business  offered  and  pro- 
vide in  an  adequate  manner  for  the  future.  Perhaps  there  has 
never  been  a  work  of  reorganization  of  this  magnitude  ac- 
complished in  the  history  of  American  railroading.  A  study 
of  its  progress  and  scope  gives  a  better  idea  of  the  greatness 
of  New  England,  and  its  rate  of  growth,  than  almost  any 
other  method  that  can  be  suggested,  and  that  is  the  excuse 
for  specifying  some  of  the  things  done  by  the  New  Haven 
since  1903,  which  is  not  so  very  long  ago.  It  may  also  be 
well  to  suggest  that  this  same  policy  and  vigorous  method 
is  soon  to  be  applied  to  the  Boston  &  Maine  lines,  and  the  re- 
sults will  probably  be  as  beneficent  for  the  northern  portion 
of  New  England  as  they  are  shown  to  be  for  the  southern. 

There  are  two  natural  divisions  of  the  railroads  of  New 
England,  despite  the  fact  of  the  one  control:  those  running 
south  of  Boston  and  those  running  north  of  Boston.  Both 
systems  connect  with  the  West  direct,  and  also  with  the  ex- 
port and  import  shipping  traffic  through  Boston  harbor. 
The  interchange  of  freight  between  the  two  divisions  is  as  yet 
comparatively  small,  but  the  tendency  is  toward  a  rapid  in- 
crease, and  in  time  it  will  become  necessary  to  secure  a  more 
economical  way  of  handling  traffic  when  en  route  from  the 
south  or  north  to  a  point  beyond  Boston.  Of  the  roads  run- 

[  240  1 


Transportation 

ning  south,  the  New  York,  New  Haven  &  Hartford  has  a 
greater  concentration  of  passenger  traffic  than  any  railroad 
in  the  United  States.  It  covers  a  section  admirably  adapted 
for  manufacturing  interests.  Nearly  every  product  that  can 
be  mentioned  is  manufactured  within  its  limits. 

The  system  of  railroads  running  north  from  Boston  also 
reaches  the  West  direct.  The  trunk  line  of  the  Boston  & 
Maine  along  the  coast  of  Massachusetts  and  New  Hampshire 
joins  the  Maine  Central  at  Portland.  Another  trunk  line  runs 
further  inland  and  furnishes  the  commercial  avenue  for  sev- 
eral important  manufacturing  towns,  and  also  has  a  terminus 
at  Portland.  A  third  trunk  line  along  the  Merrimac  val- 
ley serves  several  cities  and  large  towns  famous  for  their  tex- 
tile industries.  Over  this  line  connections  can  be  made  with 
the  Grand  Trunk  for  Canada  and  the  Northwest.  Throughout 
all  of  the  three  northern  states  of  New  England,  and  many 
of  them  along  the  lines  of  railroads,  are  extraordinary  water- 
powers  which  if  utilized  would  revolutionize  transportation 
and  industry. 

Vermont,  rich  in  natural  resources  and  excelling  in  soil- 
produced  wealth,  has  two  trunk  lines  of  railroad  running 
north  and  south  its  entire  length.  These  furnish  channels  for 
marketing  its  marble,  granite,  slate,  and  limestone.  It  is  in 
direct  connection  with  Boston  and  the  big  cities  of  the  West. 
The  farming  districts  in  Vermont  are  in  many  instances  a 
greater  distance  from  shipping  points  than  in  the  states 
lying  south  of  it,  and  consequently  there  is  less  truck  farming 
and  market  gardening.  There  are  however  excellent  oppor- 
tunities, for  fruit  growing  and  potato  raising,  and  with  good 
railroad  facilities,  manufacturing  and  agriculture  in  these 
sections  of  waterpowers  and  fertile  soil  would  produce  liberal 
reward  for  capital  and  enterprise. 

Eleven  trunk  and  branch  lines  of  the  Boston  &  Maine  rail- 
road enter  New  Hampshire  from  the  south,  and  there  are 
several  transverse  branch  lines  in  the  eastern  and  central  sec- 
tions of  the  State.  The  delightful  summer  climate  and  scenery 
of  the  White  mountains  bring  a  multitude  of  summer  visit- 
ors, who  constitute  an  important  part  of  the  traffic  of  the 

[  241  ] 


New  England 

roads  extending  north.  The  Mt.  Washington  railroad,  from 
the  base  to  the  summit  of  Mt.  Washington,  a  distance  of 
about  four  miles  and  attaining  an  altitude  of  over  6000  feet, 
is  one  of  the  most  remarkable  railroad  constructions  in  the 
world.  There  are  large  areas  in  the  central  portion  of  this 
State  at  such  distances  from  railroads  as  to  leave  fertile  soils 
and  magnificent  waterpowers  without  means  for  proper  de- 
velopment. Live  transportation  enterprises  could  open  up 
enticing  prospects  for  manufacturing  and  agriculture  in 
these  now  isolated  sections. 

From  Portland  the  Maine  Central  railroad  operates  lines 
along  the  Androscoggin  and  Penobscot  rivers.  The  Somerset 
river  and  Rangeley  lakes  railroads  extend  into  the  Rangeley 
and  Moosehead  lake  regions,  and  connect  with  the  Canadian 
Pacific.  Through  the  central  portion  of  the  State,  and  reach- 
ing far  up  into  the  lumber  regions,  and  on  to  connect  with  the 
Intercolonial  railway  in  Canada  is  the  Bangor  and  Aroos- 
took  railroad.  Some  of  the  largest  lumber  mills  in  the  world 
are  in  this  section,  and  these  make  a  great  amount  of  bulky 
freight.  A  single  mill  in  nine  months  shipped  26,000,000  feet 
of  long  lumber,  4,000,000  laths,  5,500,000  clapboards,  be- 
sides thousands  of  cords  of  pulp  wood.  In  the  Aroostook  re- 
gion potato  raising  is  an  important  industry.  Twenty-nine 
and  a  quarter  million  bushels,  raised  on  130,000  acres,  were 
shipped  from  there  in  a  single  season.  There  is  an  immense 
traffic  over  these  roads  in  summer,  when  multitudes  from  all 
over  the  country  seek  this  playground  of  America  with  its 
charming  scenery  and  unequaled  sporting  grounds.  This 
whole  north  country  abounds  in  natural  resources  that  have 
scarcely  been  touched,  and  it  awaits  avenues  of  transporta- 
tion and  industrial  activity  to  turn  what  is  now  a  wilderness 
into  a  vast  community  teejning  with  life  and  enterprise. 

To  encourage  greater  activity  in  agricultural  enterprises 
the  Boston  &  Maine  railroad  first  adopted  a  plan  to  operate 
educational  farming  trains.  This  idea  originated  in  the  West 
and  has  undoubtedly  been  of  great  benefit  to  farmers  in  the 
production  of  better  crops,  to  the  railroads  in  increased 
traffic,  and  to  the  public  in  general  in  enabling  them  to  ob- 

[  242  ] 


<?     V  — ;-  «* 

'- 


Transportation 

tain  better  food  supplies.  The  Boston  &  Maine,  the  Maine 
Central,  the  Somerset  railroad,  and  the  Washington  County 
railroad,  combine  in  equipping  an  educational  farming  train 
to  be  operated  each  year  throughout  New  Hampshire  and 
Maine.  The  New  York  Central,  lessee  of  the  Boston  &  Al- 
bany and  the  Rutland  railroads,  ran  a  better  farming  special 
for  the  first  time  throughout  western  and  central  Massachu- 
setts early  in  1910. 

The  demand  for  a  method  of  transportation  to  accommo- 
date passengers  in  transit  from  one  section  of  a  city  to  an- 
other finally  developed  into  the  electric  street  railway.  From 
the  first  trolley  lines,  which  were  operated  in  Boston,  this 
system  has  grown  to  gigantic  proportions  throughout  New 
England.  Interurban  lines  soon  followed  the  building  of  elec- 
tric railways  in  the  cities,  and  now  many  of  these  lines  carry 
freight  and  express.  The  trolley  is  fast  taking  the  place  of 
steam  for  short-line  traffic,  and  it  has  developed  a  traffic 
peculiarly  its  own  that  has  grown  to  enormous  proportions. 
No  method  of  transportation  has  ever  developed  so  rapidly 
or  been  so  popular  as  the  trolley.  With  the  introduction  of 
the  trolley  the  character  of  whole  sections  in  the  big  cities 
has  changed.  It  makes  possible  the  division  of  congested  cen- 
ters into  sections,  each  devoted  exclusively  to  either  manufac- 
turing and  trade  or  residences.  It  enables  the  city  business 
man  and  laborer  to  enj  oy  the  advantages  of  a  country  home. 

The  Boston  Elevated  Railway  company  operates  484  miles 
of  surface,  elevated  and  underground  tracks  in  twelve  munici- 
palities of  which  Boston  is  the  center.  Since  the  company 
began  operation,  in  1898,  the  facilities  have  been  rapidly  in- 
creased by  extensions  and  additions  of  great  magnitude  and 
cost.  In  a  little  over  twelve  years  the  investment  has  grown 
from  less  than  $26,000,000  to  over  $81,000,000.  When  the 
work  under  way  or  about  to  be  begun  is  completed,  within 
the  next  four  years,  the  total  investment  is  expected  to  be 
about  $112,500,000.  The  company  has  added  or  is  respon- 
sible for  the  provision  of  the  original  elevated  railway,  the 
East  Boston  tunnel,  the  Washington  Street  tunnel,  the  Forest 

[  243  ] 


Transportation 

Hills  elevated  extension,  and  over  150  miles  of  track  that 
has  added  to  the  surface  system,  all  of  which  is  now  in  opera- 
tion. Work  is  now  in  progress  on  an  elevated  extension  from 
the  northerly  end  of  the  subway  to  East  Cambridge;  on  a 
subway  from  Harvard  square  in  Cambridge  to  the  West  Bos- 
ton bridge,  and  on  a  tunnel  under  Beacon  Hill  from  the  West 
Boston  bridge  to  the  present  Park  street  subway  station.  An 
extension  of  the  elevated  line  beyond  Sullivan  square  to  Mai- 
den square  is  authorized  and  will  shortly  be  begun.  Sullivan 
square  station  will  be  altered  to  increase  its  capacity  and 
convenience  and  to  adapt  it  to  be  used  as  a  way  station  on  the 
new  Maiden  elevated  line.  The  Riverbank  subway  from  Park 
street  under  the  common  to  the  Charles  river  and  thence 
paralleling  the  river  to  Charlesgate  has  been  authorized  and 
its  construction  is  planned  for  the  near  future.  The  territory 
served  includes  about  125  square  miles.  The  company  carried 
during  the  year  ending  October  1,  1910,  a  little  over  296,- 
000,000  revenue  passengers  and  about  165,000,000  free 
transfer  passengers  making  a  total  of  461,000,000  passengers. 
The  ownership  and  operation  of  trolley  lines  by  the  steam- 
railroad  companies  has  now  become  recognized  as  an  impor- 
tant factor  in  economic  transportation.  The  Boston  &  Maine 
railroad  was  the  first  to  undertake  the  operation  of  street 
railway  systems.  It  has  properties  in  the  Merrimac  valley 
and  in  the  vicinity  of  Portsmouth  in  New  Hampshire.  The 
New  York,  New  Haven  &  Hartford  railroad  some  years  ago 
electrified  its  Nantasket  branch,  and  later  it  acquired  control 
of  several  trolley  systems  in  the  vicinity  of  its  steam  lines. 
This  road  has  approximately  1000  miles  of  trolley  lines  in 
Connecticut  and  Rhode  Island.  They  are  operated  by  a  sub- 
sidiary corporation,  which  is  practically  a  department  of  the 
parent  company.  These  lines  in  one  year  carried  25,000,000 
passengers.  Various  local  street  railway  properties  that  orig- 
inally served  the  larger  centers  throughout  Connecticut  have 
been  absorbed  into  this  system.  They  are  now  connected  by 
interurban  lines  that  for  the  most  part  lie  along  the  lines  of 
the  steam  roads.  About  15  percent  of  the  energy  for  develop- 
ment of  electricity  on  this  system  comes  from  waterpower. 

f  £45  ] 


New  England 

A  convenient  feature  of  interurban  electric  railways  is  the 
express  service.  Many  lines  operate  combination  cars,  carry- 
ing both  passengers  and  express.  These  lines  reach  many 
points  not  reached  by  steam  roads,  and  give  the  rural  pro- 
ducer and  consumer  and  the  merchant  and  consumer  in  the 
towns  quick  and  economical  express  service.  The  opening  of 
heretofore  isolated  districts  by  electric  roads  has  increased 
their  range  of  production  and  consumption,  and  thus  trolley 
express  lines  prove  valuable  feeders  for  the  traffic  of  steam 
roads.  A  trolley  parcels  post  has  been  introduced  by  some  of 
the  lines.  Five-cent  stamps,  sold  by  the  transportation  com- 
panies, are  placed  on  parcels  weighing  25  pounds  or  less, 
and  these  are  taken  on  the  regular  passenger  cars  and  deliv- 
ered to  the  consignees  anywhere  along  the  route.  If  sent  into 
another  fare  zone  another  stamp  is  required,  thus  making  a 
parcel  the  equivalent  of  a  passenger. 

There  is  a  very  important  work  for  trolleys  yet  to  do  in 
New  England.  There  are  many  thriving  towns  that  are  yet 
isolated  as  completely  as  they  were  before  the  era  of  trolleys, 
and  there  are  many  towns  that  are  yet  without  any  public 
means  of  communication  with  the  rest  of  the  world.  These 
towns  are  necessarily  stagnant.  This  question  of  intercom- 
munication is  attracting  attention,  and  as  soon  as  conditions 
permit  there  will  doubtless  be  more  rapid  progress  in  this 
matter.  Trolleys  as  investment  propositions  have  not  been 
very  attractive,  especially  the  smaller  lines.  Some  of  them 
were  unwisely  located  and  have  had  hard  work  to  meet  opera- 
tion and  interest  charges.  Others  made  so  much  money  at 
the  start  as  to  attract  speculative  interests  and  cause  them 
to  be  drawn  into  consolidations,  and  often  upon  terms  that 
made  for  them  the  same  hard  financial  conditions.  New  Eng- 
land has  not  built  trunk  lines  of  trolleys  as  lavishly  as  other 
sections  of  the  country.  There  is  not  here  the  same  demand 
for  them.  Our  cities  and  towns  are  being  rapidly  connected, 
and  the  urban  population  is  being  spread  outward  from  the 
cities.  Thus  far  in  its  history,  the  trolley  has  operated  to 
fuse  all  New  England,  and  eradicate  provincialism,  and  it 
seems  reasonably  certain  that  it  will  continue  to  be  an  im- 

[  246  1 


Transportation 

portant  element  in  industrial  progress.  The  recent  move  on 
the  part  of  the  Boston  Elevated  Railway  company,  which  con- 
templates a  system  of  trolley  transportation  of  the  truck 
and  milk  farms  produce  to  Boston  from  territory  within  a 
reasonable  distance,  is  in  line  with  the  obvious  development 
of  the  trolley  for  other  than  mere  passenger-carrying  pur- 
poses, and  promises  great  specific  benefits  if  properly  worked 
out  and  applied.  This  plan  will  extend  the  area  for  produc- 
tion of  fresh  vegetables  and  fruit  for  the  Boston  market  from 
about  a  twenty-mile  radius  to  about  a  hundred-mile  radius, 
and  may,  if  the  owners  of  the  land  cooperate  efficiently,  add 
materially  to  land  values  as  well  as  open  large  opportuni- 
ties in  the  produce  market. 

The  railroads  in  New  England  are  not  wholly  devoted  to 
the  development  of  their  carrying  business.  They  are  broad 
enough  to  realize  that  their  ultimate  prosperity  depends  in 
large  measure  upon  the  character  of  the  growth  of  the  coun- 
try through  which  their  lines  pass.  So  they  have  been  study- 
ing the  problems  of  civics  and  town  and  country  life  from 
the  point  of  view  of  enlightened  self-interest.  The  most  nota- 
ble, and  noticeable,  of  these  activities  is  perhaps  the  aid  and 
counsel  the  railroads  have  given  in  the  work  known  as  village 
improvement,  and  this  largely  in  the  building  of  attractive 
stations  and  the  embellishment  of  the  station  grounds.  Super- 
ficial views  make  us  in  New  England  seem  even  in  this  to  lag 
somewhat  behind  some  of  the  show  districts  near  New  York, 
Philadelphia,  and  Chicago;  though  it  is  to  be  remembered 
that  the  most  attractive  railroad  stations  near  New  York 
are  in  New  England,  along  the  New  Haven  railroad  in  Con- 
necticut. In  this,  as  in  all  the  aspects  of  our  railroads,  we  have 
to  plead  the  fact  that  we  are  regenerating  old  systems,  and 
that  in  the  time  of  the  building  of  those  old  systems  utility 
was  all  that  was  considered,  or  could  be  considered.  We  are 
doing  very  well  in  the  way  of  replacing  the  old  box-like  struc- 
tures with  handsome  buildings.  It  is  realized  by  citizens  and 
officials  that  the  railroad  station  is  the  front  door  of  the 
town;  that  the  station  is  the  criterion  by  which  the  town  is 

[  247  1 


New  England 

judged.  All  of  the  New  England  railroads  have  more  or  less 
fine  stations,  and  all  of  them  have  many  beautiful  bits  of  land- 
scape gardening  along  their  lines.  All  of  them  endeavor  to 
incite  their  employes  to  dress  the  grounds  under  their  care 
with  sward  and  flower  and  shrub,  grown  in  attractive  de- 
signs. A  fine  station  not  only  furnishes  a  pleasing  spot  for 
the  eye  of  the  traveler  to  dwell  upon,  but  it  increases  the  effi- 
ciency of  all  the  employes  who  see  it  daily,  and  promotes 
good  feeling  between  the  towns  and  the  railroads.  In  this 
connection,  beauty  is  a  distinctly  valuable  asset,  and  the  part 
the  railroads  are  playing  in  this  matter  is  an  element  in  the 
growth  of  New  England  that  deserves  to  be  recognized  and 
properly  appraised.  Yet  it  is  necessary  to  admit  that  we  in 
America  lag  behind  some  of  the  European  countries  in  this 
matter,  as  well  as  behind  what  we  should  be.  In  England  al- 
most all  railroad  stations  are  attractive  in  themselves  and 
made  more  so  by  tasteful  landscape  effects  and  handsome 
flower  gardens.  France  is  about  on  a  par  with  America  in 
this  matter.  In  Holland  the  canals  are  veritable  pathways  of 
bloom,  and  in  the  Hague  the  traveler  is  first  of  all  welcomed 
by  gorgeous  displays  of  glowing  flowers.  The  stations  in 
Italy  are  shabby  and  dirty,  beauty -loving  nation  that  it  is. 
New  England  railroads  are  usually  found  aiding  whatever 
enterprise  for  the  public  good  there  happens  to  be  on  foot 
within  their  spheres,  and  they  are  to  be  commended  for  what 
they  do  in  this  line.  It  may  be  questioned  however  whether 
the  railroads  in  New  England  are  more  conscious  than  in  other 
sections  of  the  fact  that  they  are  created  and  maintained  by 
the  public  in  a  more  emphatic  sense  than  can  be  said  of  any 
other  industry.  In  some  essential  particulars  this  vital  fact 
is  impressed  upon  the  railroads  in  New  England  as  it  is  not 
impressed  upon  railroads  elsewhere.  The  control  exercised 
over  the  railroads  by  the  Massachusetts  Railroad  commission 
has  kept  them  quite  near  to  the  public  that  not  only  created 
them  but  that  sustains  them,  and  the  organization  and  meth- 
ods of  this  commission  are  copied  in  all  of  the  New  England 
states,  modified  by  the  political  control  held  in  one  or  two 
of  them  by  the  railroads.  The  work  of  this  commission,  in 

[  248  ] 


Transportation 

modifying  and  regulating  the  railroads  in  the  interest  of  the 
public,  deserves  a  chapter  for  the  telling,  but  not  in  this 
connection.  It  is  certain  that  that  work  has  given  the  rail- 
roads operating  in  Massachusetts  a  distinct  added  value,  by 
placing  them  right  with  the  public  and  by  standardizing  con- 
ditions and  thus  assuring  capital  in  its  risks. 

Local  waterways,  the  first  natural  avenues  of  transporta- 
tion in  New  England,  are  not  devoted  largely  to  the  carry- 
ing of  passengers.  The  freight  that  enters  or  leaves  our 
ports,  for  the  most  part,  comes  from  or  is  carried  outside  of 
New  England.  The  Metropolitan  Steamship  company,  operat- 
ing boats  direct  from  Boston  to  New  York,  as  well  as  the  lines 
running  from  Fall  River,  Providence,  Hartford,  New  Haven, 
New  London,  and  Norwich,  are  under  the  management  of  the 
New  York,  New  Haven  &  Hartford  railroad.  This  company 
has  acquired  the  Commonwealth  pier  in  South  Boston  to  be 
used  as  a  dock  for  a  line  of  steamers  which  it  intends  to  op- 
erate between  Boston  and  New  York  through  the  Cape  Cod 
canal.  The  building  of  this  canal  will  give  a  new  impetus  to 
coastwise  traffic.  It  will  relieve  the  periodic  congestion  of 
traffic  in  Boston  harbor  by  shortening  the  distance  and  open- 
ing a  route  that  will  permit  boats  to  pass  at  all  times,  elimi- 
nating the  delays  consequent  on  the  present  necessity  for 
favorable  weather  for  small  craft  to  pass  outside  around  the 
cape.  The  Eastern  Steamship  company  operates  lines  between 
Boston  and  Portland,  Bath  and  Bangor ;  its  International  di- 
vision extending  into  New  Brunswick.  Maine's  almost  number- 
less bays,  islands  and  harbors  present  rare  scenic  wonders, 
the  fascination  of  which  induces  multitudes  of  summer  tour- 
ists into  this  section,  via  the  boats.  At  Bangor,  the  head  of 
navigation  on  the  Penobscot  river,  rail  connections  are  made 
to  the  inland  lake  and  mountain  resorts  of  northern  Maine. 
There  are  many  short  lines  reaching  the  almost  countless 
beaches  and  resorts  all  along  the  coast  of  New  England. 
Boston  and  Portland  are  the  principal  starting  points  for 
these  small  steamers. 

[  249  1 


Good  Roads  in  New  England 

IT  is  not  possible  to  exaggerate  the  importance  of  good 
roads,  nor  to  over-estimate  the  value  of  the  service  rendered 
by  Massachusetts  to  the  nation  at  large  by  its  example  and 
demonstration,  and  to  its  own  citizens  in  a  more  concrete 
way  by  the  actual  money  value  good  roads  are  bringing  to 
them.  The  United  States  government  has  manifested  great 
interest  in  good  roads,  and  the  Office  of  Public  Roads  of  the 
Agricultural  Department  has  recently  made  a  very  inter- 
esting report  upon  the  relation  of  the  public  roads  to  the 
farmer,  from  which  some  of  the  pregnant  conclusions  are 
stated.  This  report  is  based  upon  careful  and  comprehensive 
investigations,  and  probably  sums  up  the  case  of  good  roads 
as  lucidly  as  has  ever  previously  been  attempted.  In  1896 
the  Public  Roads  Office  found  that  the  average  cost  of  hauling 
on  roads  as  they  then  existed  was  25  cents  per  ton-mile,  the 
average  haul  12.1  miles,  and  the  average  load  2002  pounds. 
In  1906  another  government  bureau  computed  the  cost  of 
haulage  at  23  cents  per  ton-mile,  and  the  average  haul  at 
9.4  miles.  During  the  year  ending  June,  1906,  the  railroads 
carried  265,000,000  tons  of  agricultural  products.  Of  this 
probably  200,000,000  tons  was  hauled  over  country  roads 
to  reach  the  railroad  shipping  points.  At  23  cents  per  ton- 
mile  and  an  average  haul  of  9.4  miles  the  cost  of  this  haulage 
figures  at  $432,400,000.  Highway  engineers  compute  the 
cost  of  hauling  over  broken-stone  roads  in  good  order  at  8 
cents  per  ton-mile;  and  over  such  roads  in  ordinary  con- 
dition at  11.9  cents.  These  figures  show  that  good  roads  en- 
sure a  saving  to  farmers  of  at  least  $216,200,000  a  year, 
upon  produce  hauled  to  railroad  stations,  not  reckoning  the 
saving  on  product  hauled  to  wharves  and  landings  for  ship- 
ment by  water  routes  nor  that  hauled  direct  from  farm  to 
market.  Good  roads  extend  the  areas  within  which  perishable 

[  250  1 


Good  Roads  in  New  England 

products  may  profitably  be  raised,  in  proportion  as  they 
shorten  the  time  and  reduce  the  cost  of  reaching  market 
or  shipping  point ;  and  of  course  they  enhance  the  selling 
value  of  land  as  they  make  it  more  profitable.  Good  roads 
increase  the  supply  of  food  stuffs  in  the  market,  as  they  en- 
able the  farmer  to  haul  all  of  his  produce  to  market  at  regu- 
lar intervals,  Whereas  in  the  case  of  poor  roads  his  trips  to 
the  railroad  are  irregular  and  it  often  happens  that  delays 
result  in  loss  by  spoilage  or  seasonable  market  declines. 
Good  roads  tend  to  stimulate  freight  traffic  on  railroads, 
and  to  equalize  it.  A  very  important  effect  of  good  roads  is 
the  spread  of  population  in  farming  districts.  The  Public 
Roads  Office  ascertained  that  in  25  counties  in  states  where 
there  were  only  1.5  percent  of  improved  roads  there  was  a 
population  loss  of  an  average  of  3112  for  each  county  dur- 
ing a  ten-year  period.  In  25  other  counties,  in  the  same 
states,  where  40  percent  of  the  roads  had  been  improved, 
there  was  an  average  increase  in  population  of  31,095.  The 
benefits  of  good  roads  may  be  discovered  in  every  relation  of 
life.  In  five  good-road  states,  including  the  three  southern 
New  England  states,  the  average  percentage  of  improved 
roads  is  34.92,  and  the  average  percentage  of  attendance 
of  enroled  school  pupils  is  77.14 ;  in  five  bad-roads  states 
these  percentages  are  1.51  and  59.16.  Four  good-roads  states 
(3  of  them  New  England  states)  show  the  percentage  of  il- 
literates born  of  native  parents  to  be  0.34,  and  the  percent- 
age of  good  roads  to  be  30.55 ;  while  four  bad-roads  states 
show  4.76  and  1.51,  respectively. 

The  highway  situation  in  Massachusetts  may  be  said  at 
the  present  time  to  be  probably  as  far  advanced  towards  a 
solution  as  it  is  in  any  other  of  the  states  of  the  country.  It 
was  one  of  the  leading  states  to  do  what  has  been  so  long 
done  in  France  —  treat  the  state  highways  wholly  as  a  scien- 
tific and  business  proposition.  The  highway  is  the  only  chief 
means  of  transportation  other  than  the  railroad,  and  to  the 
practical  mind  it  appears  to  be  quite  as  necessary  that  it  be 
in  as  nearly  a  perfect  condition  as  are  the  steam  or  electric 
railways.  The  custom,  however,  everywhere  in  the  United 

[  251"  ] 


Good  Roads  in  New  England 

States,  even  in  the  large  cities,  has  been  to  entrust  the  care 
of  this  most  important  question  to  untrained  men,  whose 
principal  qualification  is  political  influence.  Massachusetts 
early  saw  the  necessity  of  improving  its  roads,  and  it  there- 
fore entrusted  the  preparation  of  plans  and  suggestions  to 
a  provisional  commission  composed  of  a  road  builder,  a  law- 
yer, and  a  geologist.  After  a  year  of  research  this  commis- 
sion reported  a  bill,  which  afterwards  became  the  law,  and 
which  was  the  starting  point  of  the  present  Highway  Com- 
mission of  Massachusetts.  The  theory  of  this  enactment  was 
that  a  system  of  highways  should  be  laid  out  as  state  roads, 
which  should  be  the  main  lines  of  traffic,  and  which  should 
be  built  in  the  most  improved  way  and  maintained  wisely. 
In  other  words,  the  system  laid  out  should  be  a  practical 
one,  and  the  construction  and  maintenance  should  be  tech- 
nical and  scientific.  The  French  highway  system  is  the  best 
developed  and  the  best  maintained  in  the  world,  although 
individual  roads  in  France,  or  anywhere  else,  are  not  better 
built  than  the  best  roads  we  have  in  Massachusetts.  The  prac- 
tical success  which  has  been  attained  here  and  elsewhere 
has  undoubtedly  led  the  other  states  to  follow  more  or  less 
closely  this  example,  and  it  is  now  true  that  the  full  sig- 
nificance of  improved  highways  has  reached  into  almost  every 
part  of  the  territory  of  the  United  States  and  Canada. 

There  is  held  in  Massachusetts  the  following  theory  as  to 
the  plan  or  scheme  of  a  highway  system  throughout  the 
State :  That  the  State  should  build  and  maintain  the  main  lines 
of  travel  leading  from  one  city  or  town  to  another,  and  the 
principal  radiating  roads  leading  out  from  the  systems  of  the 
larger  cities.  By  this  means  the  more  important  towns  will  be 
connected  and  the  surrounding  country  put  in  communica- 
tion with  its  market,  and  by  the  natural  development  of  this 
plan  through  lines  will  be  evolved  which  will  lead  from  one 
end  of  the  State  to  the  other,  as  well  as  across  the  State,  con- 
necting with  arteries  of  travel  in  adjoining  states.  This  plan 
has  been  worked  out  to  a  very  considerable  extent.  The  map 
shown  indicates  what  are  considered  the  roads,  when  com- 
pleted, that  compose  the  state  system.  From  one-third  to 

[  253  1 


Good  Roads  in  New  England 

one-half  of  these  roads  are  now  built.  These  roads  are  built  in 
every  instance  in  accordance  with  the  needs  of  each  particu- 
lar case;  that  is  to  say,  the  method  of  construction  is  adap- 
ted to  the  soil,  grade  and  other  conditions,  as  well  as  to  the 
traffic,  so  that  there  is  no  expenditure  made  which  is  not  nec- 
essary under  the  existing  conditions. 

The  method  of  building  roads  devised  by  Macadam,  the 
Scotch  engineer,  one  hundred  or  more  years  ago  in  England, 
has  been  the  basis  of  all  modern  road-building,  and  al- 
though some  of  his  theories  have  not  been  demonstrated  as 
being  the  best  for  us,  yet  the  basis  of  his  plan  has  been  the 
basis  of  modern  road-building;  and  this,  with  the  various 
modifications  that  I  have  suggested,  was  carried  down  to  the 
period  when  the  automobile  became  a  noticeable  factor.  At 
first  it  was  not  known  whether  the  automobile  was  an  injury 
to  the  road  or  not,  and  many  road  builders  expressed  the  opin- 
ion that  no  harm  was  done  by  it.  It  was  soon  found  however 
that  it  was  the  most  destructive  element  that  exists,  and  that 
some  method  must  be  employed  to  overcome  the  destructive 
action  of  these  swift-moving  vehicles,  as  their  action  on  the 
ground  is  totally  different  from  that  of  horse-drawn  car- 
riages, or  of  other  means  of  transportation.  Tar,  in  its  various 
degrees  of  refinement,  oil  and  asphalt,  besides  various  other 
so-called  paliatives,  have  been  used  and  tested.  In  Massa- 
chusetts the  Highway  Commission  has  conducted  its  experi- 
ments upon  its  own  lines  of  investigation,  and  after  a  great 
number  of  trials  and  tests,  employing  every  known  sugges- 
tion, has  by  the  elimination  of  unsatisfactory  tests  reduced 
what  appeared  to  be  practical  methods  to  a  very  few  treat- 
ments which  are  of  value.  By  the  use  of  refined  tar  reduced 
to  given  specifications,  and  asphaltic  oil  with  specified  char- 
acteristics, applied  to  the  road,  combined  with  gravel  or 
stone  chips,  a  permanent  road  can  be  built,  or  an  old  road 
reconstructed,  that  will  satisfactorily  withstand  automobile 
traffic,  as  well  as  the  ordinary  wear  and  tear  of  horses'  feet 
and  steel-shod  wheels.  The  conclusions  that  have  thus  far 
been  attained,  although  not  wholly  conclusive,  point  to  the 
maintenance  of  our  roads  when  treated  by  thoroughly  in- 

[  255  ] 


Good  Roads  in  New  England 

structed  men  at  a  less  cost  even  than  the  maintenance  of  the 
old  stone  road  before  the  day  of  the  automobile.  The  Metro- 
politan Park  Commissioners  and  the  Boston  Park  Commis- 
sioners, as  well  as  the  municipal  authorities  of  the  cities,  ha\e 
worked  with  great  skill  and  energy  toward  the  same  results, 
and  it  seems  that  a  satisfactory  solution  is  near  at  hand. 

The  effect  of  improved  roads  on  the  community  is  one  of 
the  marked  features  of  modern  life.  No  abandoned  farms 
remain  on  improved  highways.  The  distance  that  the  truck 
farmer  can  successfully  carry  on  his  business  has  been  nearly 
doubled  by  the  building  of  improved  roads.  This  of  course 
increases  the  value  of  real  estate  in  a  very  marked  degree, 
and  it  has  already  improved,  and  will  very  much  more  in 
the  future  improve,  the  conditions  of  the  farmer,  and  thereby 
benefit  the  entire  community.  The  man  of  substance,  whose 
business  is  in  the  city,  is  making  his  home  in  the  country, 
and  as  the  roads  improve  the  distance  from  his  business  to 
his  home  can  be  steadily  increased.  Further  than  this,  the 
fact  that  any  region  has  good  roads  extended  through  it  is 
an  invitation  to  people  outside  to  come  within,  and  it  is  true 
that  Massachusetts  is  now  a  place  of  great  resort  for  the 
automobilists  of  other  states. 

Too  much  emphasis  cannot  be  placed  upon  the  importance 
of  having  and  keeping  good  roads,  but  it  must  be  realized 
that  good  roads  cannot  be  built  or  maintained  except  under 
the  direction  of  skilled  and  trained  men  kept  constantly  on 
the  work.  We  never  can  have  in  Massachusetts  a  good  system 
of  highways,  outside  of  that  which  is  built  and  maintained  by 
the  State,  until  some  such  method  as  is  used  in  France  shall 
be  adopted;  that  is,  that  nobody  shall  be  employed  on  the 
roads,  even  subordinates,  who  has  not  been  thoroughly 
trained  in  the  profession.  It  should  be  wholly  removed  from 
any  political  influence  whatever,  and  only  men  appointed  to 
office  who  are  fitted  to  carry  out  the  work  successfully. 

The  other  states  of  New  England  have  progressed  along 
the  lines  of  improving  their  roads  to  a  greater  or  less  ex- 
tent. In  Maine  one  commissioner  is  appointed  by  the  gover- 
nor, who  supervises  the  expenditure  of  all  moneys  appropri- 

F  257  1 


New  England 

ated  by  the  State  and  spent  jointly  with  the  funds  that  are 
appropriated  for  the  purpose  by  the  various  municipalities. 
The  law  has  been  in  operation  but  a  little  over  five  years, 
and  it  is  not  fair  to  assume  that  the  great  area  of  the  state 
of  Maine  can  be  rapidly  improved  under  any  possible  con- 
ditions ;  but  the  purpose  of  the  law  is  for  the  State  to  unite 
with  the  different  municipalities  towards  the  permanent  im- 


PELHAM   MANOR  STATION,  ON  THE   N.   Y.,   N.   H.  &   H.   RAILROAD 

provement  of  such  roads  as  appear  to  the  people  of  the 
greatest  importance.  Six  hundred  thousand  dollars  was  ex- 
pended during  the  early  half  of  the  summer  of  1910,  solely 
by  the  State.  One  of  the  direct  benefits  derived  from  the 
methods  that  are  employed  is  that  the  commissioner,  by  his 
judicious  advice  to  the  towns  as  to  the  way  they  should  build 
and  take  care  of  their  roads,  can  improve  the  conditions  gen- 
erally outside  and  above  the  specified  amounts  that  are  spent 
by  the  State  jointly  with  the  communities. 

New  Hampshire  took  the  first  step  towards  state  super- 
vision of  highway  construction  in  1903,  when  the  legislature 

[  258  ] 


Good  Roads  in  New  England 

passed  an  act  instructing  the  governor  and  council  to  inves- 
tigate and  recommend  some  systematic  expenditure  of  state 
funds  on  highways.  A  law  was  passed  in  accordance  with 
a  recommendation  of  the  governor  and  council  in  1905, 
carrying  an  appropriation  of  $125,000  per  year,  to  be  ap- 
portioned to  such  towns  as  should  make  application  for  state 
aid.  Under  this  act  the  towns  were  obliged  to  contribute  a 
portion  of  the  cost,  varying  with  the  valuation  of  the  town, 
so  that  the  entire  fund  expended  each  year  under  state  di- 
rection, including  state  and  town  appropriations,  was  about 
$350,000.  No  radical  change  was  made  in  this  law  until 
1909,  when  the  legislature  passed  an  act  making  an  addi- 
tional appropriation  of  $1,000,000,  to  be  expended  in  not 
less  than  four  years  on  three  certain  trunk  lines,  running 
north  and  south  through  the  State.  Many  miles  of  road 
throughout  the  State  have  been  constructed  and  improved 
under  state  direction  during  the  past  six  years,  and  the  im- 
provement, like  that  in  Maine,  has  been  extended  beyond  the 
construction  of  state  roads  and  state  aid  roads. 

While  the  state  of  Vermont  has  rendered  aid  in  the  con- 
struction of  town  highways  for  many  years,  yet  it  has  not 
done  so  to  such  an  extent  as  have  the  other  New  England 
states.  The  proportion  of  cost  of  new  work  borne  by  the 
State  is  comparatively  small,  consequently  requests  for  state 
aid  from  towns  are  not  as  numerous  as  they  would  be  if  the 
State  made  more  liberal  appropriations  and  the  State  paid 
a  larger  proportion  of  cost.  Nevertheless,  many  towns  have 
received  state  aid,  and  much  work  has  been  done  under  mod- 
ern and  economical  methods. 

In  Connecticut  the  main  traffic  roads  may  become  state 
roads  upon  petition.  The  municipalities  contribute  to  the 
construction  cost,  and  one-fourth  of  maintenance.  One  com- 
missioner has  charge  and  supervision.  Many  miles  of  roads 
have  been  built.  Rhode  Island  has  an  unpaid  commission  of 
five  members,  with  a  chief  engineer  as  the  executive  officer. 
The  entire  cost  of  building  and  maintaining  state  roads  up 
to  14  feet  in  width  is  paid  by  the  State.  Nearly  all  the  main 
roads  in  the  State  have  been  improved  in  this  way. 

[  259  ] 


New  England  Commerce 

THE  efforts  of  the  early  New  England  settlers  were  in  the 
beginning  directed  mainly  toward  erecting  sufficient  shelter 
against  the  harsh  elements  and  toward  securing  from  the  re- 
luctant soil  enough  food  to  make  existence  possible.  The 
rigors  of  their  life  ashore  early  drove  them  to  the  sea  in  search 
of  fish  with  which  to  supplement  their  scanty  crops.  This  in 
turn  stimulated  boat  building.  A  new  and  profitable  field  of 
activity  was  thereby  opened,  and  commerce  sprang  up  almost 
as  soon  as  a  foothold  had  been  established  in  the  New  World. 

The  first  vessel  built  in  Boston  was  the  Blessing  of  the  Bay, 
a  sloop  of  60  tons  burden.  This  vessel  was  launched  July  4, 
1631,  by  a  happy  coincidence  of  dates,  and  was  owned  by 
Governor  Winthrop.  This  was  the  modest  harbinger  of  the 
great  fleet  that  later  was  to  carry  the  fame  of  New  England 
shipyards  to  the  remotest  corners  of  the  globe.  In  1643  was 
built  the  Trial.,  of  200  tons  burden  —  the  first  vessel  to  make 
regular  trips  between  Boston  and  the  West  Indies.  "  On  one 
day,"  so  reads  a  well-known  chronicle  of  the  time,  "  in  the 
year  1643,  five  ships  sailed  from  Boston,  three  native  built." 
From  this  it  appears  that  in  the  very  early  colonial  period  the 
iron-hearted  pioneers  of  New  England  turned  their  attention 
to  trade  and  barter  as  soon  as  they  found  themselves  able  to 
produce  a  surplus  with  which  to  carry  on  exchanges. 

The  first  product  of  the  new  region  to  have  a  commercial 
value  was  furs.  A  part  of  these  were  trapped  by  the  settlers 
themselves.  The  greater  part  were  bartered  from  the  Indians 
in  exchange  for  trinkets  of  all  kinds  —  weapons,  gunpowder, 
and  most  important  of  all,  the  staple  Indian  currency,  wam- 
pum. The  profits  in  this  trade  were  large.  The  furs  found  a 
ready  market  in  England,  and  the  cost  of  transporting  them 
was  small  as  compared  with  cheaper  articles  of  greater  bulk. 
But  the  fur  trade  proved  ephemeral.  As  settlements  grew  and 

[  260  ] 


New  England  Commerce 

population  increased  the  fur-bearing  animals  became  more 
and  more  scarce,  and  by  1650  such  pelts  as  New  England  still 
produced  were  found  to  be  going  down  the  Connecticut  river 
to  points  further  south  for  export.  If  commerce  was  to  con- 
tinue it  was  necessary  to  find  other  and  more  staple  commodi- 
ties as  the  basis  for  exchanges. 

The  commercial  policy  followed  by  nations  of  this  period 
had  a  far-reaching  effect  on  New  England  commerce.  The 
"  mercantile  system  "  —  a  body  of  principles  thought  by  the 
statesmen  of  the  time  to  embody  the  highest  wisdom  in  the 
regulation  of  the  affairs  of  nations,  and  particularly  the  com- 
merce between  nations  —  was  then  in  force.  It  was  a  period  of 
frequent  wars.  The  nations  of  Europe  were  jealously  watch- 
ing one  another,  in  the  fear  that  one  would  gain  some  undue 
advantage.  The  efforts  of  rulers  were  directed  toward  making 
their  states  self  sufficient  in  an  economic  sense,  believing  such 
self  sufficiency  to  be  the  material  basis  of  military  strength. 

In  England,  for  example,  where  the  mercantile  system  was 
in  full  force  during  the  seventeenth  century,  everything  pos- 
sible was  done  to  encourage  the  domestic  production  of  grain, 
in  order  that  Englishmen  might  be  independent  of  the  outside 
world  so  far  as  their  food  supply  was  concerned ;  to  encourage 
fisheries,  because  fishermen  made  good  sailors,  and  they  and 
their  vessels  constituted  a  naval  reserve  of  the  utmost  impor- 
tance to  a  nation  which  aspired  to  be  a  great  sea  power;  to 
protect  home  industries,  in  order  to  give  employment  to  native 
artisans  and  stimulate  the  production  of  all  manufactured 
articles  required  for  domestic  consumption ;  to  encourage  the 
accumulation  of  ready  money  within  the  State,  the  theory 
being  that  money  being  the  most  convenient  and  available 
form  of  wealth,  the  nation  which  possessed  the  largest  amount 
of  it  was  best  capable  of  maintaining  itself  in  political  and 
economic  struggles  with  her  neighbors.  Accordingly,  every- 
thing possible  was  done  to  promote  the  export  of  products  to 
other  countries  and  to  discourage  imports  in  return,  in  order 
that  there  might  be  what  was  termed  a  favorable  balance  of 
trade  which  would  have  to  be  paid  for  by  the  debtor  countries 
in  gold  and  silver.  This  had  a  most  important  influence  upon 

[  261  1 


New  England 

the  early  history  of  New  England  commerce.  Colonies  were 
regarded  merely  as  feeders  for  the  mother  country.  They  were 
therefore  to  be  regulated  in  such  fashion  as  to  yield  the  largest 
measure  of  benefit  to  the  nation  and  government  at  home. 
England,  for  example,  strongly  discouraged  the  development 
of  manufactures  in  Massachusetts  and  the  other  New  Eng- 
land colonies.  Its  aim  was  to  reserve  the  colonial  market 
wholly  for  the  home  producers  and  not  to  allow  colonial  com- 
petition to  assume  serious  proportions. 

On  the  other  hand,  England  encouraged  the  production  of 
those  articles  which  could  not  be  produced  to  advantage  at 
home.  For  example  —  timber,  masts,  spars,  tar,  hemp  and 
other  naval  stores  of  the  utmost  importance  to  England  as  a 
great  naval  power,  were  at  that  time  imported  largely  from 
the  Scandinavian  and  Baltic  countries.  This  source  of  supply 
was  precarious  and  likely  to  be  cut  off  entirely  in  periods  of 
war.  They  therefore  offered  inducements  to  the  colonists  to 
turn  their  energies  to  the  creation  of  materials  for  shipbuild- 
ing, and  New  England  soon  began  to  send  great  quantities 
of  masts  and  spars  to  English  shipyards.  Agents  of  the 
Crown  scoured  the  forests  of  the  region  searching  for  tall, 
straight  trees  that  could  be  converted  into  towering  masts 
for  the  frigates  of  the  British  navy.  Such  trees  were  marked 
with  what  was  known  as  the  "  broad  arrow  "  and,  once  desig- 
nated, could  not  be  cut  by  private  individuals.  In  the  winter 
when  the  snow  had  fallen  these  monarchs  of  the  forests  were 
felled,  stripped  of  their  branches,  and  slowly  and  laboriously 
hauled  by  great  trains  of  oxen,  frequently  numbering  fifty 
yoke  or  more,  to  the  coast  where  they  were  hoisted  on  ship- 
board for  shipment  over  seas.  This  cutting  out  and  hauling 
of  huge  timbers  at  a  time  when  power  was  furnished  solely  by 
man  and  animals,  furnishes  one  of  the  most  picturesque  and 
spectacular  features  of  the  commercial  activity  of  the  period. 

But  Yankee  knack  was  not  content  with  merely  furnishing 
materials  for  builders  across  the  sea.  Shipyards  sprang  up  at 
Boston,  Gloucester,  Marblehead,  Salem,  Medford  and  other 
New  England  ports,  and  colonial  shipwrights  soon  became 
the  equals,  if  not  the  superiors,  in  skill  of  their  fellow  crafts- 

[  262  ] 


New  England  Commerce 

men  at  home.  To  an  increasing  degree  the  oak  and  fir  which 
covered  the  hills  of  the  region  was  sent  to  England  in  the 
form  of  finished  and  seaworthy  vessels  which  found  eager  pur- 
chasers on  the  other  side.  The  importance  of  this  industry  is 
evidenced  by  a  petition  of  Boston  citizens  in  1746  which  terms 
shipbuilding  "  the  ancient  and  almost  the  only  manufacture 
the  town  of  Boston  ever  had."  At  the  shipyards  along  the 
Massachusetts  coast  an  oak  vessel  could  be  constructed  for 
$24  a  ton,  while  in  England  and  on  the  continent,  a  vessel  of 
similar  material  and  construction  would  cost  from  $50  to  $60 
a  ton.  It  is  estimated  that  at  the  outbreak  of  the  American 
Revolution  more  than  one-third  the  British  tonnage  then  afloat 
had  been  built  in  American  ports,  a  very  large  proportion  of 
it  in  New  England. 

But  aside  from  furs,  naval  stores,  ships  and  potash  (made 
by  burning  the  trees  cut  down  in  clearing  the  land  for  agri- 
cultural purposes),  England  would  not  afford  a  profitable 
market  for  the  staple  products  of  New  England.  What  were 
known  as  the  "  non-enumerated  commodities,"  consisting  of 
grain  of  all  kinds,  sugar,  salt  provisions,  fish  and  rum,  were 
barred  from  England  altogether.  The  reason  for  this  prohi- 
bition was  the  belief  that  if  their  importation  was  permitted 
they  would  compete  with  similar  industries  at  home  which  it 
was  the  policy  of  the  government  for  political  and  economic 
reasons  to  strongly  encourage. 

New  England  now  found  itself  in  a  peculiar  situation.  Mas- 
sachusetts and  the  other  colonies  of  the  region  were  increasing 
steadily  in  population.  The  dangers  from  Indian  attack  were 
no  longer  of  serious  enough  character  to  materially  distract 
the  people  from  economic  pursuits.  A  half  century  of  fierce 
struggle  and  unremitting  toil  had  sufficed  to  overcome  the 
more  serious  obstacles  to  human  habitation,  and  the  colonists 
found  themselves  in  the  enjoyment  of  a  greater  and  greater 
degree  of  physical  comfort  and  material  well  being.  Of  luxury 
there  was  little,  but  rude  plenty  abounded,  and  as  time  went 
on  the  desire  for  the  refinements  of  life  increased  with  the  in- 
crease of  wealth. 

But  however  much  the  New  Englander  might  yearn  for 

f  263  1 


New  England  Commerce 

English  broadcloths,  house  furnishings  and  table  delicacies, 
he  found  himself  unable  to  secure  them  in  exchange  for  his 
surplus  of  dried  fish,  salt  meats,  grain,  casks  and  staves.  These 
were  not  wanted  in  England,  but  they  were  wanted  elsewhere ; 
and  almost  from  the  beginning  of  commercial  activity  in  New 
England  we  find  the  colonial  merchants  seeking  a  market  for 
their  staples  in  southern  Europe  and  the  West  Indies,  whence 
they  obtained  the  purchasing  power  which  enabled  them  to 
buy  from  the  mother  country  the  manufactured  articles  and 
luxuries  they  desired.  It  was  this  need  of  a  market  for  the 
staples  barred  from  England  by  the  laws  embodying  the  prin- 
ciples of  the  mercantile  system  that  led  to  the  development  of 
the  most  characteristic  feature  of  the  commercial  activity  of 
this  period,  namely,  the  trade  with  the  West  Indies. 

The  islands  of  the  West  India  group  during  the  17th  and 
early  part  of  the  18th  century  occupied  a  much  more  promi- 
nent place  in  the  world  of  trade  than  they  hold  today  as  the 
chief  source  of  supply  of  sugar,  a  product  to  the  use  of  which 
Europe  had  just  accustomed  itself.  So  profitable  was  the  pro- 
duction of  this  new  commodity,  thus  rapidly  gaining  in  favor, 
that  the  planters  of  the  West  Indies  devoted  themselves  almost 
exclusively  to  the  raising  of  sugar  cane.  They  were  accord- 
ingly forced  to  look  elsewhere  for  their  food  supply  and  for 
the  staves  and  headings  necessary  to  make  the  hogsheads  in 
which  their  commodity  was  packed  for  shipment.  Slave  labor 
was  employed  upon  the  West  Indian  plantations.  The  cheap- 
est and  most  satisfactory  food  available  for  feeding  the  slaves 
was  found  to  be  the  dried  fish  of  New  England.  Here,  there- 
fore, was  exactly  the  market  for  which  thrifty  and  enterpris- 
ing merchants  and  skippers  of  the  New  England  coast  towns 
were  searching. 

Accordingly  a  brisk  trade  sprang  up  and  very  quickly  took 
on  a  triangular  character.  The  New  England  merchants  sent 
to  the  West  Indian  plantations  shiploads  of  dried  cod,  staves, 
headings,  salt  pork  and  beef,  and  in  limited  amounts,  grain. 
These  were  paid  for  by  bills  of  exchange  payable  in  London. 
The  West  Indian  planters  shipped  their  sugar  to  England. 
With  the  bills  of  exchange  received  from  the  West  Indian  mer- 

[  265  ] 


New  England 

chants  the  colonists  purchased  in  England  and  imported  to 
New  England  the  manufactured  articles  and  luxuries  which 
found  a  ready  market  there,  and  the  cycle  was  complete.  Such 
was  the  course  of  the  chief  trade  of  the  period. 

The  more  enterprising  and  venturesome  of  the  New  Eng- 
land merchants  also  sent  their  vessels  over  sea  to  the  Catholic 
countries  of  southern  Europe,  where  dried  fish  was  a  staple 
commodity  in  constant  demand.  With  money  and  bills  of  ex- 
change secured  in  payment,  the  vessels  then  sailed  to  English 
ports  where  cargoes  of  manufactured  articles  paid  for  from 
the  proceeds  of  the  sale  of  the  fish  were  taken  aboard  and 
brought  back  to  the  colonial  market. 

But  the  West  Indian  planters  did  not  always  pay  for  New 
England  products  with  bills  of  exchange.  Boston  and  Glouces- 
ter vessels  frequently  brought  back  to  New  England  great 
hogsheads  of  molasses,  which  was  used  as  a  substitute  for 
sugar  in  sweetening  coffee  and  food,  but  more  important  still, 
furnished  the  raw  material  of  what  soon  became  one  of  the 
leading  industries  of  New  England,  namely,  the  manufacture 
of  rum.  This  powerful  stimulant  found  eager  purchasers 
among  the  hardy  fisherfolk  constantly  forced  to  endure  the 
rigors  of  winter  off  the  Newfoundland  Banks,  and  also  among 
the  farming  and  hunting  population  in  the  interior.  Rum  was 
at  this  time  regarded  as  a  necessity,  and  those  engaged  in  its 
production  incurred  no  opprobrium  thereby. 

A  few  of  the  more  daring  and  less  scrupulous  shipowners 
of  the  time  also  made  rum  the  basis  of  deplorable  traffic  with 
the  west  coasts  of  Africa.  Vessels  would  touch  at  various 
points  on  the  Guinea  coast,  exchange  their  rum  with  native 
chiefs  for  gangs  of  negro  slaves,  returning  with  these  to  the 
West  Indies,  where  they  were  sold  to  the  proprietors  of  the 
sugar  plantations  for  more  molasses  and  some  cash.  This  was 
another  form  of  triangular  trade  looked  back  on  with  regret 
by  New  Englanders  of  the  middle  century  who  became  the 
fierce  champions  of  human  rights  and  the  most  active  oppo- 
nents to  the  continuation  of  the  institution  of  slavery. 

Another  boom  for  New  England  commerce  resulted  from 
the  passage  of  the  Navigation  Ordinance  in  1651,  under  the 

[  266  ] 


New  England  Commerce 

administration  of  Cromwell.  This  law,  aimed  at  the  maritime 
supremacy  of  the  Dutch,  provided  that  all  commerce  between 
England  and  its  colonies  in  the  East  or  the  West  should  be 
carried  in  English  built  and  manned  vessels.  The  word  "  Eng- 
lish "  here  included  the  inhabitants  of  the  colonies,  and,  with 
the  exclusion  of  foreign  built  vessels  from  the  British  marine, 
there  naturally  sprang  up  an  increased  demand  for  the  output 
of  the  New  England  shipyards.  Moreover,  the  restrictions 
already  referred  to  as  to  importing  articles  which  competed 
with  home  production  were  not  rigorously  enforced.  A  policy 
of  what  was  termed  "  salutory  neglect  "  prevailed  until  about 
1750.  There  was  often  open  connivance  between  the  customs 
officials  of  the  Crown  and  the  colonial  merchants.  Smuggling 
was  an  institution.  Those  engaged  in  it  were  frequently  citi- 
zens of  high  standing  and  repute  in  the  community.  No  dis- 
grace was  thought  to  attach  to  the  evasion  of  laws  generally 
regarded  in  the  community  as  oppressive  and  unjust.  It  is 
reckoned  that  in  1700  fully  one-third  of  the  trade  in  Boston 
was  carried  on  in  direct  violation  of  the  letter  of  the  law.  Nor 
were  the  English  merchants  themselves  so  anxious  to  have  this 
illicit  trade  checked,  inasmuch  as  only  through  its  continuance 
could  the  colonists  secure  the  cash  and  bills  of  exchange  neces- 
sary to  pay  for  their  importations  from  the  mother  country. 
It  was  estimated  by  Lord  Sheffield  that  by  reason  of  this  con- 
traband trade  the  colonial  merchants  were  able  to  remit  to 
England  between  the  years  1700-1773  close  to  thirty  millions 
of  pounds,  or  about  150  millions  of  dollars,  in  payment  for  the 
products  of  British  industries  and  British  warehouses.  D.  A. 
Wells,  the  economic  historian,  makes  the  statement  that  "  the 
colonists  were  a  nation  of  law  breakers.  Nine-tenths  of  the 
colonial  merchants  were  smugglers.  One-quarter  of  the  whole 
number  of  the  signers  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence 
were  bred  to  the  contraband  trade.  John  Hancock  was  the 
prince  of  contraband  traders,  and,  with  John  Adams  as  his 
counsel,  was  on  trial  before  the  Admiralty  Court  in  Boston  at 
the  exact  hour  of  the  shedding  of  blood  at  Lexington,  to  an- 
swer for  one-half  a  million  dollars  penalties  alleged  to  have 
been  by  him  incurred  as  a  smuggler." 

[  267  1 


New  England 

This  wholesale  evasion  of  the  laws,  induced  by  the  restrictive 
commercial  theories  of  the  time,  continued  until  about  1763. 
Then  Grenville  became  prime  minister,  and  undertook  to  en- 
force the  laws  more  rigidly.  In  1764  the  "  Sugar  Act  "  was 
enacted,  by  which  duties  were  laid  upon  indigo,  coffee,  wines, 
silks  and  calicoes,  and  other  East  Indian  and  oriental  prod- 
ucts. The  following  year  the  Stamp  Act  was  passed,  and  al- 
though this  act  was  repealed  in  1766,  it  was  followed  by  what 
were  known  as  the  Townshend  Acts,  which  imposed  a  duty  on 
wine,  oil,  paper,  glass,  lead,  painters  colors  and  tea.  The  vio- 
lent discontent  which  these  aroused,  particularly  in  New  Eng- 
land, likewise  led  to  their  repeal,  with  the  exception  of  a  duty 
of  three  pence  a  pound  upon  tea,  which  was  retained  for  the 
purpose  of  upholding  the  principle  of  Parliament's  right  to 
tax  the  colonists. 

From  this  time  on  the  commercial  history  of  New  England 
is  closely  bound  up  with  the  series  of  events  which  culminated 
in  1776  in  the  outbreak  of  the  American  Revolution.  The  Bos- 
ton Tea  Party  is  too  well  known  to  need  comment.  An  amus- 
ing sidelight  on  the  thrift  of  our  patriotic  forefathers  is  found 
in  the  story  that  many  of  the  leading  citizens  of  Boston  who 
participated  in  the  dumping  of  the  tea  into  the  harbor  wore 
heavy,  wide-topped  boots  on  that  eventful  night.  When  these 
worthy  gentlemen  returned  to  their  homes  after  performing 
the  deed  which  electrified  the  western  world,  their  good  wives 
were  rejoiced  to  find  these  same  boots  partially  filled  with  the 
contents  of  the  obnoxious  tea  chests!  In  spite  of  the  non-im- 
portation agreements  which  had  been  entered  into  all  through 
the  region,  it  is  safe  to  say  that  the  good  ladies  were  not 
wholly  deprived  of  their  customary  cup  of  the  fragrant 
beverage. 

While  the  Revolution  was  in  progress  commerce  declined. 
The  vast  fleet  of  England  not  only  blockaded  American  ports, 
but  controlled  the  high  seas,  and  only  a  few  adventurous  mer- 
chants dared  risk  the  danger  of  capture  by  English  vessels  of 
war.  During  this  period  however  we  find  the  beginnings  of 
that  trade  with  China  and  the  East,  which  later  took  on  con- 
siderable proportions.  Smuggling  of  course  continued  active 

[  268  1 


New  England  Commerce 

during  the  time  of  hostilities,  but  the  energies  of  the  people 
were  so  fully  given  to  the  struggle  that  the  volume  of  ex- 
changes was  comparatively  small.  This  cutting  off  of  the  im- 
portations naturally  stimulated  domestic  production,  for  the 
colonists  made  desperate  efforts  to  provide  themselves  with 
those  articles  formerly  supplied  by  English  manufacturers ; 
and  at  the  close  of  the  Revolution,  New  England  had  learned 
to  produce  for  itself  a  considerable  amount  of  the  articles 
formerly  brought  by  her  ship  captains  from  over  the 
sea. 

With  the  signing  of  the  Treaty  of  Paris,  in  1783,  and  the 
resumption  of  peaceable  commercial  relations  with  England, 
the  American  markets  were  flooded  with  British  products. 
Native  manufacturers  struggled  weakly  for  a  time,  but  soon 
succumbed.  The  energies  of  the  new  nation  were  again  de- 
voted largely  to  the  purely  extractive  industries,  and  to  ex- 
changing the  surplus  of  raw  materials  which  the  rich  natural 
resources  of  the  country  yielded  for  the  finished  products  of 
the  older  nations  of  Europe.  The  wharves  of  New  England 
ports  were  crowded  with  British  sail,  and  native  merchants 
complained  bitterly  that  while  their  rivals  were  allowed  to 
trade  freely  with  the  United  States,  they  on  the  contrary 
were  barred  from  similar  privileges  in  ports  under  control  of 
England.  Even  the  profitable  West  Indian  trade  was  reserved 
exclusively  for  British  built  and  manned  vessels,  and  while  the 
rigor  of  these  restrictions  was  considerably  abated  by  the 
wholesale  smuggling  trade  which  went  actively  on,  they  none 
the  less  constituted  a  heavy  handicap  upon  the  commerce  of 
New  England. 

This  condition  of  affairs  continued  until  the  outbreak  of 
the  French  Revolution.  Soon  after  this  event  England  found 
itself  engaged  in  a  life  and  death  struggle  with  its  ancient 
,enemy,  France.  The  English  navy  controlled  the  seas.  A 
blockade  of  all  Europe  was  declared.  Napoleon  retaliated  by 
forbidding  vessels  of  any  nation  in  alliance  with  him  to  trade 
with  English  ports.  Scores  of  French  privateers  were  loosed 
to  prey  upon  English  merchantmen,  and  the  commerce  of 
European  nations  was  seriously  interrupted.  The  United 

[  269  1 


New  England 

States  found  itself  the  one  great  neutral  carrying  nation  of 
the  world,  and  from  1793  to  1800  the  volume  of  foreign  trade 
carried  in  American  bottoms  increased  by  leaps  and  bounds. 
During  this  period  New  England  sea  captains  sailed  their 
splendid  clipper  ships  to  every  port  of  the  world,  and  soon 
became  recognized  as  the  ablest  seamen  afloat.  While  fre- 
quently subjected  to  the  indignities  of  search  and  impress- 
ment, and  occasional  confiscation,  by  the  armed  ships  of  the 
warring  powers  jealously  bent  on  preventing  the  enemy  from 
obtaining  any  advantage,  they  none  the  less  prospered 
mightily  and  reaped  a  rich  return. 

This  prosperity  suffered  a  temporary  check  from  1801  to 
1803  through  the  Treaty  of  Amiens,  which  stopped  hostili- 
ties for  the  time  and  deprived  America  of  her  advantage  as 
the  great  neutral  maritime  power.  With  the  resumption  of  the 
war,  however,  in  1803,  commerce  revived  again  and  continued 
with  unabated  activity  until  1806. 

At  this  time  developments  began  which  once  more  inter- 
rupted our  foreign  trade  and  threw  the  nation  back  upon 
itself  in  its  efforts  to  supply  its  own  needs. 

President  Jefferson  was  a  strong  advocate  of  a  policy  of 
non-resistance  as  applied  to  the  foreign  relations  of  the 
United  States.  When  the  numerous  insults  and  indignities  to 
which  American  merchantmen  were  subjected  by  the  warring 
powers  of  Europe  had  aroused  a  persistent  public  clamor  for 
retaliation,  he  secured  the  passage,  in  1807,  of  the  Embargo 
Act.  This  measure  forbade  any  American  vessel  to  leave  port 
to  engage  in  foreign  trade  —  the  theory  being  that  the  opera- 
tions of  the  American  merchant  marine  were  so  essential  to 
the  economic  existence  of  the  countries  of  Europe  that  the 
discontinuance  of  those  operations  would  quickly  bring  the 
belligerents  to  terms  and  ensure  proper  recognition  and  re- 
spect for  vessels  flying  the  American  flag  on  the  high  seas. 
But  the  result  was  not  that  expected.  France  and  England 
stubbornly  refused  to  come  to  terms  and  somehow  managed 
to  get  along  without  the  services  of  American  skippers.  Do- 
mestic shipping  rotted  at  the  wharves,  and  New  England  mer- 
chants began  to  demand  the  privilege  of  running  the  risk  of 

f  270  1 


capture  and  confiscation  of  their  ships  and  cargoes  rather 
than  see  their  vessels  inactive  and  decaying  at  home. 

In  the  following  year  the  Embargo  Act  was  replaced  by 
what  is  known  as  the  Non-Intercourse  Act,  a  measure  similar 
in  character  but  less  sweeping  in  its  provisions.  Trade  then 
revived  somewhat  but  had  regained  only  a  fraction  of  its 
former  volume  when  the  outbreak  of  the  War  of  1812  again 
dealt  it  a  staggering  blow.  During  this  conflict  our  ports 
were  again  blockaded  by  England,  and  our  merchantmen  har- 
ried and  captured  by  English  frigates  and  sloops  of  war.  By 
1814  the  foreign  trade  of  the  United  States,  which  in  1807 
amounted  to  over  108  millions,  had  declined  to  less  than  thir- 
teen millions  of  dollars  annually. 

As  a  result  of  this  almost  total  destruction  of  our  trading 
activities,  hundreds  of  vessels  were  sold  and  the  capital  thus 
realized  invested  in  manufacturing  enterprises  of  one  kind  or 
another.  The  basis  of  many  of  the  fortunes  of  the  old  families 
of  the  region  were  laid  in  this  period  of  stress.  Francis  C. 
Lowell,  in  1814,  established  at  Waltham,  Mass.,  what  is  said 
to  have  been  the  first  cotton  factory  in  the  world  in  which  all 
the  processes  from  the  preparation  of  the  raw  material  to  the 
weaving  and  finishing  of  the  cloth  itself  were  carried  on  in 
one  establishment  and  under  a  single  administration.  Within 
a  few  years  staple  cotton  cloths  of  New  England  began  to 
compete  with  the  product  of  English  mills,  not  only  in  the 
home  market  but  in  South  America  and  the  West  Indies,  as 
well.  A  great  variety  of  other  manufactures  sprang  into  ex- 
istence, and  the  eagerness  and  promptitude  with  which  the 
people  of  New  England  entered  into  this  new  field  of 
activity  foreshadowed  the  later  industrial  supremacy  of  the 
region. 

At  the  close  of  the  war  in  1816,  and  with  the  resumption  of 
commercial  relations  with  England,  English  manufactured 
products,  which  had  been  piling  up  in  warehouses  awaiting 
the  declaration  of  peace,  again  flooded  the  American  market, 
seeking  purchasers  at  almost  any  price.  The  newly  established 
industries,  brought  into  existence  by  the  enforced  production 
of  the  Embargo  and  war  period,  were  not  able  to  stand  com- 

[  271  1 


New  England 

petition  of  this  character.  A  vigorous  demand  arose  for  pro- 
tective duties,  and  in  the  new  tariff  law  of  1816  we  find  the 
protective  principles  consciously  applied. 

On  land,  transportation  facilities  —  the  arteries  of  com- 
merce —  were  almost  entirely  lacking.  Of  good  roads  there 
were  none  in  the  interior,  and  only  a  few  along  the  natural 
highways  of  travel  between  the  great  centers  of  population. 
Families  in  the  remote  country  districts  were  largely  self- 
sufficient  economic  units  in  themselves.  Wants  were  simple, 
and  satisfied  mainly  from  the  products  of  farm  and  stream. 
Every  household  had  its  spinning-wheel,  every  neighborhood 
its  loom.  During  the  long  winter  months  the  women  and  girls 
of  the  household  spun  the  wool  clipped  from  the  fleece  of  sheep 
raised  at  home,  and  either  wove  it  into  the  durable  fabric 
known  as  homespun,  or  mixed  the  wool  with  linen,  the  fabric 
thus  made  being  known  as  "  linsey-woolsey." 

The  isolation  of  life  of  this  period  can  hardly  be  compre- 
hended in  this  age  of  rapid  steam  and  electric  transit.  Men 
and  women  were  born,  lived  and  died  without  traveling  twenty 
miles  from  the  place  of  their  birth.  Such  travel  as  there  was, 
was  done  mostly  on  horseback,  and  chiefly  for  the  purpose  of 
visiting  relatives  or  of  securing  from  the  nearest  village  store 
the  simple  necessities  of  life  (such  as  salt,  iron  and  tools) 
which  could  not  be  manufactured  at  home.  The  country 
storekeeper  was  the  trade  autocrat  of  the  period.  Exchanges 
were  carried  on  by  means  of  barter.  Yarns,  homespun  cloth, 
salt  meats,  dried  fruits,  handwrought  nails,  clapboards, 
staves,  headings,  etc.,  were  collected  at  the  country  store. 
When  winter  set  in  and  snow  covered  the  ground,  these  prod- 
ucts of  the  region  were  transported  on  sledges  to  the  nearest 
city  markets  and  exchanged  for  staple  groceries  and  other 
manufactured  commodities  which  the  simple  life  of  the  rural 
regions  demanded.  Occasionally  the  people  of  the  neighbor- 
hood, dissatisfied  with  the  terms  offered  them  by  the  local 
storekeeper,  would  band  themselves  together,  organize  a  sledg- 
ing expedition,  and  carry  their  own  products  to  the  city,  thus 
disposing  of  them  to  better  advantage  and  bringing  back  the 
articles  which  they  required.  Internal  trade,  restricted  by  the 

[  272  1 


New  England  Commerce 

difficulties  of  transportation,  was  at  this  time  necessarily  of 
far  less  importance  than  foreign  trade. 

It  is  interesting  to  note  to  what  a  remarkable  degree  the 
country  store  under  these  conditions  became  the  training 
school  for  the  active  men  of  the  period.  A  study  of  historical 
biography  will  show  that  a  very  large  number  of  the  men  who 
attained  prominence  in  commercial  life  and  in  politics,  spent 
their  boyhood  behind  the  counters  of  some  local  trade  depot, 
where  their  wits  were  sharpened,  and  their  bargaining  pro- 
pensities developed  by  their  business  dealings  with  the  thrifty 
and  shrewd  farmers  of  the  neighborhood. 

After  1820  the  means  of  transportation  were  improved. 
The  first  advance  was  the  building  of  turnpikes  by  private 
companies,  who  charged  a  toll  to  secure  a  return  on  their  in- 
vestment. Then  came  the  steamboat  —  a  more  important  fac- 
tor, however,  in  developing  the  internal  trade  of  the  West 
than  of  New  England.  The  rude,  steam-propelled  river  craft 
of  the  period  could  almost  go,  as  one  writer  put  it,  "  wherever 
the  dew  fell,"  and  did  much  to  stimulate  commercial  life  of 
those  communities  having  access  to  navigable  waters.  Later, 
from  about  1825  to  1850,  numerous  canals  were  built  fur- 
nishing the  connecting  links  in  the  system  of  natural  water- 
ways. Finally  after  1830  the  construction  of  railroads  began, 
marking  the  last  step  in  the  development  of  transportation 
agencies,  until  the  recent  appearance  of  electric  trolley 
lines. 

While  internal  trade  was  thus  slowly  and  laboriously  mak- 
ing headway  against  the  obstacles  due  to  the  lack  of  means  of 
transportation  on  land,  a  brisk  coasting  trade  was  carried  on. 
Cotton  manufacture  was  making  rapid  strides  in  New  Eng- 
land and  the  mill  owners  were  demanding  more  and  more 
cotton.  The  policy  of  protection,  begun  in  1816,  was  contin- 
ued, the  scale  of  duties  steadily  rising  until  about  1830.  The 
South,  moreover,  needed  as  clothing  for  her  slaves  the  cheap 
cotton  cloth  manufactured  in  New  England,  and  furnished  a 
steady  and  constantly  increasing  market  for  it.  The  people  of 
the  South,  devoting  their  efforts  mainly  to  the  production  of 
cotton,  were  forced  to  buy  their  manufactured  articles  and  to 

[  273  ] 


New  England 

a  considerable  extent  their  food  supply  from  the  North.  Thej 
naturally  opposed  protective  tariffs,  which  increased  the  price 
of  the  former,  and  favored  free  trade.  After  1830  there  began 
a  gradual  reduction  in  the  rates  of  duty  until  by  1842  they 
had  reached  an  average  level  of  20  percent.  The  Tariff  Act  of 
1846  again  increased  the  duties  to  an  average  of  about  30 
percent,  after  which  there  was  a  steady  decline  until  the  out- 
break of  the  Civil  War  in  1860. 

Boston  was  then,  as  she  is  now,  the  second  port  of  the 
country  in  regard  to  volume  and  variety  of  imports  from 
abroad.  These  imports  together  with  domestic  manufactured 
products,  and  to  some  extent  the  food  products  of  the  fish- 
eries and  the  farm,  found  a  ready  market  south  of  Mason  and 
Dixon's  line.  They  were  paid  for  in  money  or  bills  of  exchange 
obtained  through  shipments  of  cotton  to  Europe,  chiefly  to 
Liverpool.  There  was  thus  built  up  a  second  form  of  triangu- 
lar trade  —  food  stuffs,  manufactured  articles  and  imports 
from  New  England  to  the  South;  cotton  from  the  South  to 
England;  manufactured  articles  from  England  to  the  ports 
of  New  England.  Most  of  this  trade  was  carried  on  in  coast- 
ing vessels  which  under  the  registry  laws,  still  in  force,  had 
to  be  American  built  and  manned. 

New  England  vessels  controlled  a  large  part  of  this  trade. 
Since  1800  the  wooden  sailing  ship,  the  best  types  of  which 
were  turned  out  from  New  England  shipyards,  had  been  ad- 
mittedly the  finest  vessels  afloat,  both  as  regards  speed  and 
carrying  capacity.  In  the  latter  part  of  the  period  under  con- 
sideration a  number  of  events  had  combined  to  enormously 
stimulate  the  building  of  these  wooden  ships.  The  California 
gold  discoveries  created  a  sudden  and  feverish  demand  for 
transportation  to  the  Pacific  coast  by  way  of  the  Horn  or  the 
Isthmus  of  Panama.  Political  disturbances  in  Europe  between 
1840  and  1850  caused  a  wholesale  emigration  to  this  country, 
and  an  increased  demand  for  passenger  accommodations  in 
American  vessels.  The  Crimean  War  forced  European  gov- 
ernments to  buy  or  charter  many  American  vessels  for  trans- 
port work.  As  a  result,  it  is  estimated  that  in  1855  the  ton- 
nage of  the  United  States,  including  that  engaged  in  the 

[  274  ] 


New  England  Commerce 

coasting  and  internal  trade,  was  about  one-third  the  total 
tonnage  of  the  world. 

But  a  change  had  gradually  taken  place  in  the  character  of 
the  merchant  marine  which  was  destined  ultimately  to  under- 
mine the  maritime  strength  of  the  nation.  In  the  decade  1830 
to  1840  successful  experiments  had  been  made  with  steam- 
driven  vessels  in  the  trans-Atlantic  service.  By  1840  a  few 
iron  vessels  were  built  and  were  beginning  to  demonstrate 
their  superior  durability  and.  carrying  power.  New  England 
shipwrights,  however,  confident  of  the  superior  excellence  of 
their  splendid  clipper  ships,  refused  to  notice  the  changes  that 
were  taking  place  and  still  confined  their  efforts  to  the  pro- 
duction of  wooden  vessels.  By  the  outbreak  of  the  Civil  War 
about  one-fifth  of  the  tonnage  being  constructed  was  steam 
driven,  but  practically  all  of  the  vessels  were  constructed  of 
wood.  England,  on  the  other  hand,  enjoying  the  advantage 
of  a  well-developed  iron  industry,  had  been  quick  to  see  the 
possibilities  of  the  new  type  of  vessel,  and  her  shipyards  were 
more  and  more  turning  their  attention  to  the  building  of  iron 
steamers. 

When  the  Civil  War  broke  out,  the  construction  of  merchant 
vessels  was  seriously  interrupted,  the  shipyards  being  forced 
to  turn  their  energies  mainly  into  the  building  of  war  vessels 
needed  to  maintain  the  rigid  blockade  of  southern  ports,  and 
to  protect  our  shipping  on  the  high  seas  from  the  depreda- 
tions of  southern  privateers.  This  interruption  to  the  build- 
ing of  merchant  tonnage,  coupled  with  the  wholesale  capture 
of  trading  vessels  flying  the  American  flag,  by  such  southern 
cruisers  as  the  Alabama,  and  the  prohibitive  insurance  rates 
which  the  danger  of  such  capture  entailed,  caused  many  ship- 
owners to  sell  their  vessels  abroad  and  devote  the  capital  thus 
released  to  manufacturing  enterprises  or  to  the  opening  of 
new  lands  in  the  West.  It  is  stated  on  reliable  authority  that 
at  the  close  of  the  Civil  War  the  merchant  marine  of  the 
United  States  had  declined  by  more  than  one  million  tons. 
Meantime  England  had  taken  advantage  of  the  distraction 
caused  by  the  Civil  War  and  had  established  beyond  question 
her  supremacy  in  the  building  of  iron  steamships,  which  by 

[  275  1 


New  England 

1870  had  come  to  be  recognized  as  the  superior  of  the  old 
wooden  type  of  vessel.  Accordingly,  it  may  be  said  that  the 
close  of  the  period  of  1816  to  1860  saw  the  decline  of  New 
England's  shipping  activity  well  under  way. 

Several  causes  prevented  a  revival  of  shipbuilding  in  New 
England  after  the  war.  Manufacturing,  enormously  stimu- 
lated by  the  high  tariff  of  the  war  period,  had  absorbed  a 
large  amount  of  the  available  capital  of  the  region  and  was 
constantly  demanding  more.  The  high  prices  created  by  the 
interruption  of  productive  activities  and  by  the  high  tariffs 
had  also  made  the  building  of  vessels  in  this  country  more 
costly  than  abroad.  This  was  particularly  true  of  iron  vessels. 
Moreover,  the  great  western  country  was  being  rapidly  opened 
to  development.  Railroads  had  reached  the  Mississippi  valley 
before  the  close  of  the  war,  and  by  1870  the  first  railroad 
across  the  continent  had  been  built.  The  virgin  resources  of 
this  vast  region  thus  thrown  open  for  exploitation  offered  a 
most  attractive  field  for  investment  and  larger  returns  than 
could  be  secured  from  investments  in  shipping,  where  the 
competition  encountered  from  England  and  the  other  natio'ns 
of  Europe  was  keen  and  continuous. 

But  while  the  shipbuilding  industry  did  not  after  the  close 
of  the  war  have  the  revival  which  might  have  been  expected, 
there  was  an  enormous  development  of  the  means  of  transpor- 
tation and  communication  on  land.  Railroad  building  like  ship- 
building was  checked  during  the  war;  but  by  1880  the  num- 
ber of  miles  of  railroad  in  the  United  States  was  three  times 
what  it  was  in  1860  —  one  mile  for  every  571  inhabitants, 
and  the  people  of  the  United  States  were  better  supplied  with 
railroads  than  those  of  any  other  country.  Most  of  the  new 
construction  took  place  in  the  states  of  the  Middle  West  and 
Northwest,  and  afforded  an  outlet  for  the  grain,  corn  and 
cattle  of  which  these  states  were  beginning  to  produce  enor- 
mous quantities,  and  which  they  now  began  to  pour  into  the 
world's  markets. 

The  important  advantage  which  it  would  have  been  to  Bos- 
ton to  have  been  the  terminus  of  a  through  railroad  line  to 
Chicago,  Buffalo  and  the  lake  ports,  from  which  the  grain, 

[  276] 


New  England  Commerce 

corn  and  cattle  of  the  Northwest  came,  is  evident.  New  York, 
Philadelphia  and  Baltimore,  the  Atlantic  ports  with  which 
Boston  competes  for  this  traffic,  are  each  the  terminus  of 
such  lines.  In  view  of  the  large  amount  of  Boston  capital  in- 
vested in  western  railroads  and  of  the  fact  that  once  at  least 
Boston  had  the  opportunity  to  secure  such  a  through  line  on 
favorable  terms,  it  is  astonishing  that  Boston  is  not,  and 
never  has  been,  the  terminus  of  such  a  through  railroad 
line. 

But  the  commerce  of  Boston  has  not  lagged.  On  the  other 
hand,  it  has  steadily  increased.  In  1885  (the  year  when  the 
Boston  Chamber  of  Commerce  was  founded)  Boston  exports 
amounted  to  $54,521,579.  Last  year  they  aggregated 
$72,936,869.  Our  imports  show  a  still  more  remarkable  in- 
crease. In  1885  their  value  was  $53,576,300.  Last  year  they 
aggregated  $127,031,679,  and  were  exceeded  only  by  the 
port  of  New  York.  Accurate  statistics  in  reference  to  the  vol- 
ume of  New  England's  domestic  commerce  —  the  trade  be- 
tween New  England  and  the  interior  parts  of  the  country  — 
are  not  easily  obtainable ;  but  when  one  is  told  that  the  value 
of  her  commerce  with  the  interior  has  been  conservatively 
estimated  to  be  ten  times  that  of  her  foreign  commerce  he 
begins  to  realize  as  he  probably  never  has  realized  before  the 
tremendous  volume  of  New  England's  commerce. 

And  one  must  not  forget  the  part  which  the  New  England 
railroads  have  played  in  producing  this  result.  Alive  to  the 
situation,  with  notable  courage  and  zeal  and  commendable 
public  spirit,  they  have  at  their  own  expense  constructed 
docks  capable  of  accommodating  the  largest  trans-Atlantic 
steamships,  erected  elevators  equipped  with  the  best  modern 
machinery  and  facilities,  and  made  joint  traffic  agreements 
with  the  western  railroads,  giving  to  Boston  the  benefit  of 
advantageous  through  rates.  The  effect  of  this  is  shown  by 
the  fact  that,  whereas  Boston  in  1885  received  from  the  West 
1,835,815  bushels  of  wheat,  last  year  it  received  and  exported 
9,465,984  bushels — more  than  any  other  port  in  the  United 
States  except  New  York. 

But  gratifying  as  the  facts  given  above  in  regard  to  our 

[  277  ] 


BOSTON  CHAMBER  OF  COMMERCE  BUILDING 


New  England  Commerce 

commerce  may  be,  they  are  by  no  means  the  measure  of  the 
commerce,  either  foreign  or  domestic,  which  New  England 
ought  to  have.  New  England  has  abundant  capital  for  invest- 
ment. Boston's  per  capita  wealth  is  acknowledged  to  be 
greater  than  even  that  of  New  York  City.  There  are  on  de- 
posit in  the  savings  banks  of  New  England  $1,262,000,000 
—  one-third  of  the  total  savings  deposited  in  such  banks  in 
the  United  States.  Massachusetts  banks  alone  hold  one-fifth 
of  this  amount.  The  paid  in  capital  of  national  banks  in  the 
New  England  states  aggregates  about  $102,000,000  —  about 
one-ninth  of  the  total  banking  capital  of  the  national  banks 
of  the  United  States. 

Boston  enjoys  the  immense  advantage  of  direct  water  con- 
nection with  the  South  Atlantic  and  Gulf  states.  They  furnish 
a  splendid  market  for  the  manufactured  products  of  New 
England ;  and  we,  on  the  other  hand,  furnish  a  splendid  mar- 
ket for,  and  need,  the  raw  products  of  those  states.  Yet  until 
recently  nothing  had  been  done  by  New  England  to  avail  her- 
self of  this  asset,  and  to  develop  water  transportation  —  the 
cheapest  means  of  transportation  there  is  —  between  Boston 
and  the  Gulf  ports.  Indications  that  the  business  men  of  New 
England  are  at  last  beginning  to  realize  the  important  value 
of  this  asset  are  at  hand,  and  it  is  confidently  expected  that 
within  a  short  time  we  shall  see  steamships  owned  by  New 
Ertgland  capital  and  controlled  by  New  England  men  plying 
between  New  England  and  the  South  Atlantic  and  Gulf  ports. 

Boston  has  over  40  miles  of  water  front  and  one  of  the 
finest  harbors  in  the  world.  She  has  some  modern  docks  — 
mostly  built  by  the  railroad  companies.  But  it  is  only  within 
the  past  year  that  the  first  step  has  been  taken  toward  the 
development  of  a  comprehensive  scheme  of  docks  and  terminal 
facilities,  such  as  any  European  port  of  equal  size  would  have 
had  years  ago.  The  change  in  the  harbor  line  recommended 
by  the  Chamber  of  Commerce,  and  adopted  by  the  legislature 
last  year,  furnishes  for  development  an  area  large  enough  to 
accommodate  a  system  of  docks  the  superior  of  any  on  this 
continent,  with  abundantly  adequate  railroad  terminals,  ware- 
houses, industrial  plants,  etc.,  in  the  rear;  and  the  state  of 

[  279  ] 


New  England 

Massachusetts  has  contributed  $3,000,000  to  make  a  start  in 
the  development  of  these  docks. 

No  city  of  equal  size  on  the  Atlantic  coast  is  so  favorably 
situated  for  steamship  communication  with  England  and  the 
European  continent  as  Boston.  It  is  200  miles  nearer  to  Liver- 
pool than  New  York.  If  steamers  of  speed  equal  to  those  now 
running  to  New  York  plied  between  Boston  and  Liverpool,  for 
instance,  mail  matter  from  New  England  would  reach  Liver- 
pool eight  hours  sooner  and  from  Chicago  and  the  West  over 
five  hours  sooner  than  it  now  does  from  New  York.  The  Post 
Office  Department  sends  its  mail  matter  by  the  quickest  route. 
So  valuable  to  our  railroads  has  been  the  privilege  of  carry- 
ing the  mails  that  more  than  one  instance  might  be  cited  of 
their  having  spent  hundreds  of  thousands  of  dollars  to  shorten 
their  route  by  one  hour.  Why  should  not  a  swift  steamship 


APPROACH  TO  NEWTON  HIGHLANDS  STATION,  ON  THE  BOSTON 
&  ALBANY  RAILROAD 


[   280 


New  England  Commerce 

line  run  between  Boston  and  Liverpool,  and  on  the  same  prin- 
ciple demand  and  receive  the  bulk  of  our  European  mail? 

These,  and  many  other  similar  suggestions  that  might  be 
made,  show  the  possibilities  in  the  development  of  New  Eng- 
land commerce.  Meanwhile,  we  may  congratulate  ourselves 
that  in  many  lines  of  trade  and  commerce  Boston,  the  prin- 
cipal port  of  New  England,  now  leads  the  country.  It  sells 
about  100,000,000  pairs  of  boots  and  shoes  annually  — 
more  than  any  other  city  in  the  world.  It  sells  annually 
32,000,000  pairs  of  rubber  boots  and  shoes  —  also  more  than 
any  other  city  in  the  world;  it  imported  in  the  year  ending 
June  30,  1909,  $150,861,105  worth  of  wool  —  nearly  three 
times  as  much  as  was  imported  at  any  other  port ;  it  received 
and  marketed  last  year  $10,500,000  worth  of  fish  —  more 
than  any  other  American  city,  and  exceeded  by  only  one  port 
in  the  whole  world ;  it  sells  annually  $100,000,000  worth  of 
dry  goods,  $50,000,000  worth  of  leather,  $25,000,000  worth 
of  clothing,  $6,000,000  worth  of  confectionery,  $3,500,000 
worth  of  musical  instruments;  but  why  prolong  the  list? 
Indications  are  not  wanting  that  the  near  future  will  see  a 
rapid  increase  in  the  development  of  New  England's  com- 
merce. Boston  is  the  natural  port  for  Canadian  products.  The 
unnatural  barrier  erected  by  men,  and  magnified  by  our  tariff 
laws,  has  thus  far  to  a  considerable  extent  prevented  Boston 
from  becoming  what  nature  intended  it.  But  reciprocity  with 
Canada,  more  and  more  insistently  demanded,  must  come 
sooner  or  later,  to  the  advantage  of  both  countries  and  to  the 
port  of  Boston.  The  growing  trade  with  South  American 
ports  —  until  recently  steadily  neglected  —  will  soon  be  still 
further  stimulated  by  the  opening  of  the  Panama  Canal,  the 
latter  consuming  an  ever-increasing  share  of  the  products  of 
our  industries.  But,  best  of  all,  and  most  encouraging  by  far, 
is  the  spirit  of  cooperation  now  being  slowly  but  surely  de- 
veloped in  New  England  —  the  spirit  which  makes  all  things 
possible,  and  which,  if  it  keeps  on  at  the  rate  attained  in  the 
last  few  years,  is  destined  to  take  Boston  out  of  its  state  of 
lethargic  contentment  and  put  it  into  the  front  rank  of  the 
cities  of  the  world. 

[  281  J 


New  England  Summer  Resorts 

NEW  ENGLAND  is  distinctively  the  summer  playground  of 
the  eastern  portion  of  the  United  States.  From  the  industry 
gf  catering  to  the  comfort  and  pleasure  of  vacationists,  sum- 
mer residents,  and  casual  tourists,  the  people  engaged  in  that 
business  here  derive  an  annual  income  of  about  $60,000,000, 
and  the  time  is  not  far  distant  when  this  amount  will  have  been 
increased  to  $100,000,000  yearly.  Indeed,  in  the  entire  range 
of  New  England  possibilities,  there  is  nothing  more  promis- 
ing for  the  future  than  the  development  of  this  important 
and  rapidly-growing  business,  for  that  is  what  it  is  today. 

Boston,  so  often  referred  to  as  "  the  Hub  of  the  Solar  Sys- 
tem," is  literally  the  "  hub  "  of  this  vast  volume  of  tourist 
and  vacation  travel;  and  in  this  respect  it  is  practically  an 
all-the-year-round  proposition,  as  indeed  the  New  England 
vacation  field  itself  is  gradually  becoming. 

America's  ideal  "  convention  city,"  by  reason  of  its  loca- 
tion, attractions  of  climate,  history,  and  generally  unique  in- 
dividuality, the  New  England  metropolis,  is  in  the  very  nature 
of  things  a  great  clearing-house  of  tourist  travel,  receiving 
and  sending  out  a  vast  army  of  transient  visitors  coming  from 
every  state  of  the  Union  and  province  of  Canada,  and  from 
nearly  every  country  in  the  world,  and  scattering  to  all  the 
multitude  of  rest  resorts  and  shrines  of  history  in  the  six  New 
England  states,  Quebec,  the  Maritime  Provinces,  and  New- 
foundland. 

Nor  is  Boston's  primacy  as  a  tourist  rendezvous  a  merely 
local  matter,  for  of  late  years  it  has  come  to  be  a  favorite 
halfway  station  and  departing  point  for  thousands  of  Ameri- 
can and  Canadian  voyagers  to  Europe,  many  of  whom  are 
attracted  hither  not  only  because  of  the  well-known  excellence 
of  the  trans-Atlantic  steamships  plying  from  Boston,  but  be- 
cause of  the  ambition  that  possesses  every  normal  American 

[  282  ] 


New  England  Summer  Resorts 

to  see  this  attractive  city  and  its  picturesque  and  historic 
environs.  Thousands  of  first-class  passengers  are  carried  in 
and  out  on  the  magnificent  steamships  of  the  Cunard,  White 
Star,  and  other  lines  that  regularly  ply  between  this  city 
and  Liverpool,  London,  and  other  foreign  ports ;  and  the  lists 
frequently  include  people  from  California,  Georgia,  and 
Manitoba. 

In  New  England  as  in  no  other  section  has  been  abun- 
dantly demonstrated  the  truth  of  the  statement  that  "  travel 
is  a  good  thing  for  the  traveler,  for  the  railroad,  and  for 
everybody  whom  the  traveler  meets  or  with  whom  he  so- 
journs." It  is  equally  true  of  this  section,  as  the  same  writer 
has  asserted,  that  "  the  summer  visitor  has  been  the  builder, 
to  a  great  extent,  of  prosperous  towns  and  communities  that 
but  for  his  visits  would  have  remained  undeveloped."  In  a 
broad  sense  of  the  word,  New  England  itself  has  been  enor- 
mously developed  by  the  summer  visitor,  especially  during 
the  last  twenty-five  or  thirty  years.  Today  it  challenges  the 
attention  of  the  entire  world  by  reason  of  its  remarkable  pop- 
ularity as  a  vacation  territory,  appealing  to  people  in  every 
walk  of  life,  from  President  of  the  United  States  down  to  bank- 
clerk  and  shop-girl. 

Nowhere  else  is  there  a  territory  of  similar  area  containing 
so  great  a  diversity  of  physical  attractions,  or  a  summer 
climate  more  conducive  to  outdoor  life  and  enjoyment.  This 
is  the  real  secret  of  New  England's  popularity  as  a  resort. 
There  has  been  nothing  forced  or  artificial  in  its  development 
along  these  lines.  Its  superb  climate,  its  attractive  scenery, 
and  its  historical  associations,  have  made  it  what  it  is  today 
—  the  people's  summer  pleasure  ground.  The  arts  of  adver- 
tising and  modern  publicity  have  played  their  part  in  its  up- 
building, but  only  an  incidental  part. 

Each  of  the  six  states  that  make  up  New  England  is  a 
natural  summer  vacation  resort,  and  one  or  two  of  them  are 
forging  to  the  front  as  cold-weather  winter  resorts,  after  the 
fashion  of  Canada  and  Switzerland.  Maine  alone  has  10,000,- 
000  acres  of  wild  forest  lands,  diversified  by  more  than  2000 
lakes  and  streams,  and  with  2500  miles  of  sinuous  and  rugged 

[  283  1 


New  England  Summer  Resorts 

sea-coast  in  addition.  New  Hampshire,  also  bountifully  en- 
dowed with  lovely  lakes,  has  400  square  miles  of  mountain 
country,  ranging  in  altitude  from  2000  to  6000  feet  above  the 
sea.  Vermont  is  another  smiling  summer  land  of  mountains, 
valleys,  lakes,  and  rivers,  and  with  wonderful  possibilities  as 
a  vacation  country  that  have  not  dawned  upon  even  its  people 
as  yet.  Massachusetts  has  its  world-renowned  North  Shore, 
whither  millionaires  and  foreign  ambassadors  flee  the  heat  of 
New  York  and  Washington ;  and  likewise  it  has  its  sandy  Cape 
Cod,  its  rolling  Berkshire-Hoosac  country,  its  picturesque 
Connecticut  and  Deerfield  river  valleys,  not  to  mention  its 
Concord  and  Lexington,  its  Plymouth  and  Provincetown,  its 
Salem  and  its  Newburyport.  Rhode  Island,  the  smallest  of  the 
sextet  of  peerless  vacation  commonwealths,  has  its  wonderful 
Narragansett  Bay,  its  gilded  Newport.  Connecticut,  with  its 
great  stretch  of  Long  Island  Sound  shore,  and  its  beautiful 
rural  country,  also  holds  high  rank  as  a  summer  resting 
section. 

Where  can  there  be  found,  within  such  limitations,  such  a 
marvelous  mingling  of  seashore,  mountain,  lake  country, 
farm  land  and  wilderness,  with  all  that  they  stand  for  in 
brain  and  body  building,  in  outdoor  recreation,  in  mental 
and  physical  recuperation,  and  vacation  satisfaction? 

This  is  why  New  England  has  grown  to  be  the  peerless 
vacation  resort  it  is  today;  and  this  is  why  Boston,  in  addi- 
tion to  its  high  standing  as  a  commercial,  manufacturing,  and 
educational  center,  is  also  the  country's  chief  distributing 
center  of  tourist  travel  and  the  American  Mecca  of  every  or- 
ganization that  can  muster  enough  adherents  to  hold  an 
annual  convention. 

In  the  building  up  of  New  England  as  a  sixty-million-dollar 
vacation  section,  the  transportation  companies  serving  this 
territory,  and  particularly  the  railroads,  have  been  factors  of 
no  small  importance.  To  a  large  extent,  the  subject  may  well 
be  considered  in  connection  with  these  different  lines. 

Thus,  the  Massachusetts,  Rhode  Island,  and  Connecticut 
territory  lying  south  and  east  of  Boston  has  been  developed, 
in  part,  by  the  New  York,  New  Haven  &  Hartford  rail- 

[  285  ] 


New  England 

road  and  its  predecessor  companies.  The  most  phenomenal 
growth  in  this  large  "  New  Haven  "  territory  has  been  in  the 
Cape  Cod  and  South  Shore  sections  of  Massachusetts.  In 
this  part  of  New  England  there  has  been  a  remarkable  in- 
crease in  the  summer  population  of  the  numerous  seashore 
resorts  scattered  along1  the  coast  line  of  Massachusetts  Bay, 
Cape  Cod,  and  Buzzards  Bay.  Cohasset,  Scituate,  Plymouth, 
Marshfield,  Buzzards  Bay,  Onset,  Chatham,  Orleans,  Marion, 
Provincetown,  Martha's  Vineyard,  Nantucket  and  many  other 
attractive  places  have  become  great  hotel,  cottage,  and  pri- 
vate residence  centers,  and  have  been  selected  as  the  summer 
homes  of  eminent  Americans,  like  the  late  President  Cleveland 
and  Joseph  Jefferson. 

The  immense  growth  in  vacation-season  travel  to  these 
points  is  reflected  in  the  vastly  increased  transportation  ser- 
vice, as  compared  with  a  generation  ago.  The  accommodations 
provided  by  the  railroad  for  week-end  visitors  are  particu- 
larly extensive,  and  for  the  benefit  of  the  wealthier  class  of 
summer  residents,  made  up  principally  of  Boston  business 
men  and  their  families,  exclusive  trains  of  parlor  cars,  patron- 
ized only  by  regular  subscribers,  are  run  throughout  the 
season. 

The  Cape  Cod  and  southeastern  Massachusetts  section 
offers  all  the  typical  American  aquatic  pleasures,  including 
bathing,  fishing,  boating,  and  yachting.  The  water  on  the 
more  southerly  shores  is  considerably  warmer  than  that  of 
Massachusetts  bay,  and  this  is  one  of  the  few  places  in  New 
England  that  afford  the  rare  sport  of  blue-fishing.  In  no  sec- 
tion can  a  coat  of  summer  tan  be  acquired  more  quickly  or 
effectively  than  along  the  sandy  shores  of  Cape  Cod. 

Plymouth,  with  its  famous  "  Rock  "  and  its  mementoes  of 
the  Pilgrims,  and  Provincetown,  with  its  new  and  stately  mon- 
ument commemorating  the  first  stopping  place  of  these  pioneer 
New  Englanders,  naturally  attract  many  thousands  of  visitors 
annually,  by  reason  of  their  historical  significance.  Both  places 
may  be  reached  from  Boston  by  steamboat,  as  well  as  by  train. 
A  steamer  trip  down  Boston  harbor,  or  to  the  numerous  excur- 
sion points  outside  of  it,  like  Nantasket,  Bass  Point,  Salem 

[  286  ] 


New  England  Summer  Resorts 

Willows,  or  Gloucester,  is  one  of  the  chief  delights  of  a  summer 
sojourn  in  the  Modern  Athens.  A  million  people  make  such 
trips  every  year. 

The  Rhode  Island  resorts,  forming  part  of  the  New  York, 
New  Haven  &  Hartford  group,  are  principally  found  in 
the  vicinity  of  Narragansett  Bay,  one  of  the  most  attractive 
of  our  New  England  water  sheets.  Newport,  with  its  mag- 
nificent millionaires'  estates,  its  casino,  and  its  wonderful 
shore  drive,  draws  the  transient  summer  tourist  like  a  magnet. 
Block  island,  in  Long  Island  sound,  is  a  semi-isolated  resort, 
like  Martha's  Vineyard  and  quaint  Nantucket,  in  Massachu- 
setts waters ;  and  is  as  popular  with  the  Rhode  Islander  as  are 
the  others  with  the  people  of  Massachusetts.  Watch  Hill  is 
another  favorite  nearby  resort,  and  Narragansett  Pier  has 
achieved  national  fame. 

Connecticut  has  a  long  list  of  delightful  seacoast  resorts, 
extending  from  the  Rhode  Island  boundary  clear  down  to  the 
New  York  line,  and  including  New  London,  with  its  magnifi- 
cent nearby  beaches.  The  ride  over  the  "  Shore  Line  "  of  the 
New  York,  New  Haven  &  Hartford  railroad  between  Prov- 
idence and  New  York  is  one  of  the  most  picturesque  in  all  New 
England.  Connecticut  also  has  some  exceedingly  attractive  in- 
terior vacation  centers,  like  Pomfret  and  the  Housatonic  val- 
ley section.  In  spite  of  this  already  marked  growth,  the  real 
development  of  this  vast  summer  recreation  territory  is  still 
in  the  future.  In  the  years  to  come,  during  the  warm  season, 
it  will  simply  swarm  with  rest-seekers  from  the  big  cities  to 
the  South. 

In  the  territory  under  consideration,  annual  events,  like  the 
great  Brockton  fair  and  the  lesser  one  at  Marshfield,  attract 
thousands  of  visitors  and  tax  the  facilities  of  the  railroads 
and  electric  street  railways.  The  latter  nowadays  offer  their 
services  to  tourists  in  almost  every  part  of  New  England,  and 
many  do  most  of  their  vacation  traveling  on  them. 

Another  glorious  vacation  country,  served  by  both  the  New 
York,  New  Haven  &  Hartford  and  the  Boston  &  Albany 
railroads,  is  the  famous  Berkshire  region  in  western  Massa- 
chusetts. This  beautiful  country  of  hill  and  vale  is  virtually  a 

[  287  ] 


New  England 

continuation  of  the  Green  mountains  of  Vermont.  It  reaches 
its  climax  of  natural  beauty  in  the  vicinity  of  Pittsfield,  Great 
Barrington,  Lenox,  Lee,  and  Stockbridge,  although  it  is  ex- 
ceedingly attractive  from  Springfield  on.  Lenox,  Great  Bar- 
rington, and  Stockbridge  may  be  safely  classed  among  the 
fashionable  resorts  of  the  United  States,  being  inland  New- 
ports  on  a  small  scale.  The  air  here  is  clear  and  bracing  and 
the  views  superb.  Golf,  tennis,  horseback  riding,  and  auto- 
mobiling  are  the  favorite  pastimes,  and  social  life  at  some  of 
the  resorts  is  very  gay.  Pittsfield,  in  the  recent  past,  has  been 
the  scene  of  many  interesting  amateur  balloon  ascensions,  these 
having  paved  the  way,  in  a  measure,  for  the  establishment  of 
the  new  aviation  field  at  Atlantic,  Mass.,  which  has  added  yet 
another  summer  attraction  to  Boston's  already  long  list. 

Some  of  the  most  attractive  of  Boston's  famed  suburbs  lie 
along  the  line  of  the  Boston  and  Albany  railroad,  this  leased 
connection  of  the  New  York  Central  system  being  one  of 
Boston's  main  avenues  to  the  West.  These  include  Brookline, 
the  wealthiest  town  in  the  world  and  one  of  the  most  beautiful ; 
Newton  and  Wellesley,  the  last-named  the  seat  of  the  noted 
girls  college  of  that  name.  Worcester,  the  second  largest  city 
in  Massachusetts,  possesses  Lake  Quinsigamond,  one  of  the 
fairest  water  sheets  in  this  part  of  New  England.  By  fast 
trolley,  as  well  as  by  train,  the  tourist  can  visit  most  of  these 
attractive  places,  including  Riverside,  the  famous  canoeists 
rendezvous  on  the  Charles  river. 

Attractive  and  popular  as  are  the  sections  just  described, 
the  true  vacation  country  of  New  England,  after  all,  is  that 
which  lies  to  the  east  and  north  of  Boston  —  the  country  of 
the  mountains,  of  the  great  lakes,  the  deer-haunted  wilderness, 
and  the  far-stretching  unbroken  sea-coast  of  three  states  and 
as  many  Canadian  provinces.  It  is  in  the  region  dominated 
by  the  Boston  &  Maine,  Maine  Central,  Central  Vermont  and 
Bangor  &  Aroostook  railroads,  that  the  large  majority  of 
vacationists  foregather  from  June  till  October,  to  disport  in 
the  stimulating  Atlantic  surf,  climb  the  steep  slopes  of  the 
breeze-swept  White  and  Green  mountains,  and  revel  in  the 
quiet  restfulness  of  hospitable  farms. 

[  288  1 


New  England  Summer  Resorts 

Maine,  New  Hampshire,  Vermont,  and  a  portion  of  Massa- 
chusetts, are  included  in  this  highly  favored  domain,  and  a 
day's  ride  in  parlor  car  or  a  night's  journey  in  sleeper  brings 
the  tourist  in  touch  with  the  greater  part  of  it.  There  is 
practically  no  form  of  outdoor  existence  or  enjoyment  pos- 
sible to  the  United  States  that  is  not  available  here;  and  to 
the  long  list  of  summer  pleasures  has  latterly  been  added  the 
delights  of  winter  outings,  with  their  snowshoeing  and  skiing 
expeditions,  tobogganing,  and  other  Swiss-like  diversions. 

In  this  wonderful  playground  of  the  people  also  are  to  be 
found  some  of  the  largest  and  most  magnificent  hotels  dedi- 
cated to  the  comfort  of  vacationists  that  the  nation  can  boast. 
There  could  be  no  better  index  of  the  wonderful  growth  and 
popularity  of  New  England  as  a  tourist  section  than  the  ex- 
istence of  the  sumptuous  hostelries  that  draw  happy  throngs 
to  Bretton  Woods,  Poland  Spring,  Rockland  Breakwater, 
Bethlehem,  Profile,  New  Castle,  and  Bar  Harbor.  The  influx 
of  summer  visitors  has  not  only  brought  a  vast  increase  in  the 
number  of  hotels,  but  it  has  distinctly  raised  the  tone  of  all  of 
them.  The  accommodations  offered  the  vacationist  in  New  Eng- 
land, whether  it  be  at  the  palatial  million-and-a-half-dollar 
hostelry  at  Bretton  Woods  or  the  humblest  farmhouse  in  the 
most  sequestered  valley  of  New  Hampshire,  are  the  best  that 
can  be  obtained  for  the  price  in  any  part  of  America. 

The  individual  resorts  in  this  remarkable  northeastern 
portion  of  the  United  States  are  numbered  almost  by  the 
hundreds ;  their  patrons  by  the  tens  of  thousands.  That  part 
of  Massachusetts  itself  north  of  Boston  and  the  Fitchburg  di- 
vision of  the  Boston  &  Maine  railroad  has  a  large  number  of 
them,  not  including  the  places  of  exclusively  historic  or  liter- 
ary interest,  like  Concord,  Lexington,  Haverhill,  Salem,  Ips- 
wich, Amesbury  and  Newburyport.  Mt.  Wachusett,  in  the 
vicinity  of  Fitchburg,  and  surrounded  with  a  setting  of  beau- 
tiful rural  scenery ;  Mt.  Tom,  near  Holyoke  and  Springfield ; 
the  Massachusetts  section  of  the  lovely  Connecticut  valley; 
Lake  Pleasant ;  historic  Deerfield ;  Greenfield,  the  popular 
rendezvous  of  long-distance  automobilists ;  the  picturesque 
Deerfield  river  and  valley;  the  Hoosac  mountains,  bored  by 

[  289  ] 


New  England  Summer  Resorts 

the  famous  tunnel  of  that  name ;  Greylock  mountain,  with  its 
wonderful  views ;  and  scholastic  Williamstown  and  ecclesiasti- 
cal Northfield,  are  but  a  few  of  the  numerous  points  and  places 
of  interest  to  tourists  lying  west  from  "  the  Hub." 

Most  fascinating  of  all  however,  because  of  its  wonderful 
commingling  of  ocean,  rocks,  and  modern  architecture  and 
landscape  gardening,  is  the  incomparable  "  North  Shore  "  of 
Massachusetts.  Here  is  a  vacation  region  that  has  eclipsed  in 
popular  interest  even  Newport  and  Bar  Harbor.  For  a  gen- 
eration or  more  it  has  been  the  summer  abiding  place  of  Bos- 
ton's bankers,  merchants,  and  captains  of  industry,  and  lat- 
terly it  has  become  the  vacation  ground  of  some  of  the  most 
prominent  members  of  the  diplomatic  corps  at  the  national 
capital.  In  1909,  President  William  H.  Taft,  with  intimate 
acquaintance  with  practically  every  corner  of  the  Republic, 
decided  that  the  proper  place  to  set  up  the  summer  White 
House  was  somewhere  on  this  regal  North  Shore  of  Massachu- 
setts ;  and  so  it  has  come  to  pass  that  the  summer  capital  of 
the  United  States  is  now  in  the  pretty  town  of  Beverly,  whose 
natural  attractions  and  splendid  summer  climate  Oliver  Wen- 
dell Holmes  was  one  of  the  first  of  our  great  Americans  to 
discover  and  appreciate. 

The  North  Shore  begins  at  sea-swept  Nahant,  home  .of  the 
scholar  in  politics,  Senator  Henry  Cabot  Lodge,  and  continues 
eastward,  on  the  northern  side  of  Massachusetts  bay,  to  rug- 
ged Cape  Ann.  Within  its  precincts  are  Swampscott,  Clifton, 
Beach  Bluff,  Marblehead,  Beverly,  Manchester,  Magnolia, 
Gloucester,  Rockport,  and  Annisquam.  In  some  of  these  rock- 
fronted,  tree-embowered  communities  the  red-tiled  roofs  of 
palace-residences  costing  a  couple  of  million  dollars  show 
among  the  foliage,  while  around  them  extend  great  parks  and 
beautiful  Italian  gardens.  Everything  that  money  can  com- 
mand and  good  taste  suggest  is  to  be  found  in  this  favored 
spot  of  New  England.  The  oiled  macadam  roads  over  which 
the  motor  cars  of  the  multi-millionaire  summer  residents  roll 
are  among  the  finest  in  the  land.  Horse  shows,  flower  festi- 
vals, and  open-air  theatrical  performances,  are  among  the 
less  conventional  amusements  enjoyed  here.  Typical  of  the 

[  291  ]  * 


New  England 

Bay  State's  maritime  glory  is  the  annual  rendezvous  and  il- 
lumination of  the  New  York  and  local  yacht  clubs  at  quaint 
Marblehead.  It  constitutes  a  vast  and  beautiful  outdoor  mo- 
tion picture  that  no  visitor  to  the  vicinity  can  afford  to  miss. 

At  Gloucester,  historic  headquarters  of  the  American  fish- 
eries and  nursery  of  the  national  navy,  artists  by  hundreds 
congregate  each  summer;  for  it  is  a  place  in  whose  back- 
grounds, atmosphere  and  "  characters,"  they  take  a  keen  de- 
light. Gloucester  and  Cape  Ann  in  general  may  be  reached 
by  train,  trolley,  or  steamboat.  Among  the  many  things  this 
interesting  section  is  famed  for  are  its  appetizing  New  Eng- 
land fish  dinners.  Vast  is  the  stretch  of  sea-coast  and  innumer- 
able the  "  shore  "  resorts  that  lie  between  the  North  Shore 
and  the  mystic  vacation  "  beyond."  The  cool  and  delightful 
16-mile  strip  of  New  Hampshire  coast  has  crowded  into  it 
such  attractive  tourist  centers  as  Hampton,  Rye,  New  Castle, 
Portsmouth  (scene  of  the  historic  Peace  Conference  of  1905), 
and  the  romantic  Isles  of  Shoals,  immortalized  by  Celia  Thax- 
ter  and  lying  ten  miles  out  in  the  Atlantic. 

The  Maine  coast,  without  a  peer  in  all  the  world,  covers 
something  like  2500  miles  in  its  sinuosities,  and  embraces  some 
of  the  most  famous  seashore  resorts  in  the  country.  In  the 
order  .of  advance  toward  the  east,  there  are  Kittery,  York, 
Ogunquit,  Wells,  Kennebunk,  Old  Orchard,  Cape  Elizabeth, 
Portland,  Casco  Bay,  Rockland,  Boothbay,  Bath,  Camden,  Bar 
Harbor,  and  the  incomparable  Frenchman's  bay  region,  until 
finally  the  invisible  line  that  separates  the  United  States  from 
Canada  is  crossed,  and  the  long  procession  of  resorts  in  the 
Maritime  Province  begins. 

Portland,  like  Boston,  is  an  important  distributing  point 
of  vacation  travel,  and  has  excellent  through  train  connec- 
tions with  both  the  New  England  metropolis  and  New  York. 
Old  Orchard  (the  Atlantic  City  of  Maine),  Cape  Elizabeth, 
Peak's  island,  Cushing's  island,  and  the  innumerable  island 
resorts  of  beautiful  Casco  bay,  are  among  its  many  nearby 
centers  of  attraction.  Poland  Spring,  the  famous  summer-and- 
winter  vacation  resort  and  sanatorium,  is  within  a  short  ride 
of  the  city,  as  is  also  Sebago  lake,  a  delightful  vacation  and 

[  292  ] 


New  England  Summer  Resorts 

fishing  resort  possessing  among  its  attractions  the  celebrated 
Congo  river  and  Bay  of  Naples.  Farther  afield,  and  on  the 
edge  of  the  wilderness,  lie  the  regal  Rangeley  lakes,  a  thou- 
sand feet  above  the  sea  level,  teeming  with  game  fish,  their 
shores  lined  with  sumptuous  camps,  cosy  cottages,  and  first- 
class  hotels.  Larger  in  area,  and  even  more  beautiful  in  scen- 
ery, is  the  more  distant  Moosehead  lake,  Maine's  largest 
water  sheet.  Kineo,  with  its  imposing  mountain,  is  the  social 
center  of  this  popular  tourist  and  fishing  resort  and  pos- 
sesses a  big  hotel  well  worthy  of  its  reputation.  Within  a 
measurable  distance  majestic  Mt.  Katahdin,  Maine's  highest 
eminence,  rears  its  head  a  mile  above  the  ocean,  and  marks 
the  center  of  the  great  fishing  and  hunting  region  of  Maine. 
The  vast  and  solemn  wilderness  that  covers  this  part  of  the 
Pine  Tree  State  is  splashed  with  countless  lakes  and  bisected 
with  numberless  rivers  and  streams,  in  which  millions  of  trout, 
land-locked  salmon,  and  other  game  fish,  await  the  coming  of 
the  eager  sportsman.  It  is  also  in  these  remote  and  balsam- 
laden  covers  that  the  city  sportsmen  find  the  fleet-footed  deer, 
20,000  or  so  of  which  fall  to  the  hunters'  rifles  every  season, 
along  with  smaller  numbers  of  moose  and  bears. 

Through  the  vast  waterways  formed  by  the  Penobscot, 
Aroostook,  Allagash,  Big  Fish,  St.  John  and  other  great 
rivers  of  the  Maine  wilderness  canoeists  may  paddle  for  hun- 
dreds of  miles,  fishing,  hunting,  or  camping  en  route,  where- 
ever  they  desire.  Sporting  camps  equipped  with  most  of  the 
conveniences  and  many  of  the  luxuries  of  city  hotels,  are 
nowadays  found  everywhere  throughout  the  fascinating  wil- 
derness country,  some  of  them  privately  owned,  and  others 
controlled  by  companies  or  clubs.  Even  women  can  nowadays 
penetrate  to  the  remotest  recesses  of  the  wilderness  in  safety 
and  comfort.  Expert  licensed  guides  are  everywhere  available, 
and  the  transportation  facilities  are  so  greatly  improved  that 
the  parlor  car  almost  brings  the  sportsman  within  sighting 
distance  of  deer  or  moose.  Even  the  automobile  is  now  nego- 
tiating the  heart  of  the  ancient  woods  of  Maine.  Both  Augusta 
and  Bangor,  attractive  river  cities  of  Maine,  may  be  reached 
from  Boston  by  direct  steamboat;  and  there  is  scarcely  any 

[  293  ] 


New  England 

part  of  the  Maine  coast  itself,  east  of  Portland,  that  is  not 
accessible  by  local  steamer.  At  Rockland  breakwater  there  is 
a  magnificent  modern  hotel  that  has  become  the  nucleus  of  a 
seashore  Poland  Spring.  In  the  glorious  Frenchman's  bay 
region  the  crescendo  of  New  England's  seacoast  scenery  is 
reached,  the  social  climax  coming  at  its  world-famed  Bar  Har- 
bor, on  Mt.  Desert  island.  This  noted  summer  abiding  place 
of  multimillionaires  grows  more  charming  year  by  year.  It  is 
a  community  of  magnificent  estates,  splendid  roads,  tonic  air, 
and  incomparable  scenery.  New  England  possesses  no  natural 
asset  it  prizes  more  highly.  Like  Marblehead  and  Newport, 
it  is  a  favorite  rendezvous  for  wealthy  yachtsmen,  and  its 
annual  golf  tournaments,  horse  show,  and  other  social  events, 
are  but  a  few  of  its  social  attractions.  Surf  bathing,  yachting, 
salt-water  fishing,  driving  and  the  long  list  of  conventional 
athletic  sports  help  to  fill  in  the  time  of  the  vacationist  along 
the  shores  of  hundred-harbored  Maine  and  bring  brightness 
to  the  eye  and  bronze  to  the  skin.  The  seacoast  rivers  offer 
splendid  opportunities  for  canoeing,  also,  this  being  a  notable 
diversion  at  Kennebunk.  Clambakes  and  fish  dinner^  on  the 
beach  are  another  favorite  form  of  enjoyment.  Roughly  speak- 
ing, there  is  not  a  single  mile  of  sea-coast  between  Boston  and 
Eastport  that  is  without  some  attraction  for  vacationists. 
The  fine,  hard,  white  beaches,  washed  by  the  crinkling  surf 
o£  the  Atlantic,  are  the  special  delight  of  visitors  from  points 
far  inland. 

Nowhere  throughout  the  broad  New  England  vacation  field 
has  there  been  a  more  remarkable  growth  than  in  the  vicinity 
of  the  great  lakes  of  New  Hampshire.  These  today  practi- 
cally form  a  summer  vacation  department  by  themselves,  and 
in  some  cases  so  rapid  has  been  their  development  that  it  is  no 
longer  possible  to  purchase  building  lots  around  their  shores 
except  at  almost  prohibitive  prices.  Most  remarkable  of  all 
has  been  the  development  of  Lake  Winnepesaukee,  in  south- 
eastern New  Hampshire,  well  named  by  the  Indians  "  the 
smile  of  the  Great  Spirit."  This  largest  of  the  Granite  State's 
water  sheets,  and  perhaps  the  loveliest  of  them  all,  is  today 
the  summer  camping  ground  of  thousands  from  every  section 

[  294  1 


New  England  Summer  Resorts 

of  the  country.  Its  local  resorts,  like  Weirs,  Center  Harbor, 
Wolfboro,  and  Alton  bay,  have  had  a  remarkable  growth  in 
the  last  quarter  of  a  century.  New  hotels  have  been  built,  old 
ones  enlargd,  Y.  M.  C.  A.,  Appalachian  Mountain  club,  and 
private  camps  have  been  established  on  many  of  its  350 
islands ;  new  steamboat  lines  have  been  added,  and  scores  of 
wealthy  people  have  erected  substantial  houses  and  cottages 
and  become  permanent  summer  residents.  Most  wonderful  of 
all  has  been  the  increase  in  the  number  of  motor  craft  on  the 
lake.  The  Winnepesaukee  fleet  numbers  hundreds  of  these  to- 
day, including  some  of  the  fastest  in  the  United  States,  and 
the  motor-boat  races  are  always  an  interesting  feature  of  the 
annual  lake  carnival  at  Weirs.  Sailing,  canoeing,  fishing  for 
bass  and  trout,  and  motor-boating,  form  the  leading  pastimes 
at  this  beautiful  hill-surrounded  lake. 

Lake  Sunapee,  in  the  more  western  part  of  the  State,  is 
another  favorite  resort.  Its  summer  population  has  grown 
immensely  in  late  years,  and,  like  its  larger  neighbor,  Winne- 
pesaukee, it  has  a  large  permanent  cottage  colony  as  well  as 
an  immense  floating  hotel  and  boarding-house  patronage.  The 
proximity  of  the  great  Corbin  game  preserve  lends  an  addi- 
tional interest  to  Lake  Sunapee.  Another  New  Hampshire 
water  sheet  that  may  justly  be  regarded  as  a  valuable  New 
England  "asset "  is  Dublin  lake,  lying  within  the  shadow  of 
Mt.  Monadnock.  This  stately  mountain  —  a  favorite  of  the 
poet  Whittier  —  is  in  turn  the  axis  of  a  thriving  and  at- 
tractive vacation  zone  in  southwestern  New  Hampshire  gener- 
ally referred  to  as  "  the  Monadnock  country."  At  Dublin  are 
the  beautiful  summer  homes  of  some  of  the  country's  most 
famous  literary  workers  and  professional  men,  a  large  number 
of  whom  spend  their  summer  vacations  in  various  parts  of 
New  England.  It  is  likewise  the  summer  headquarters  of  some 
of  the  Washington  cabinet  officials  and  ambassadors,  who  de- 
light in  its  splendid  ozone  and  its  delightful  scenery.  Fitzwil- 
liam,  Peterboro,  and  East  Jaffrey  are  other  popular  resorts 
in  this  vicinity. 

Seductive  as  are  its  lakes,  its  seashore  and  its  winding  Mer- 
rimac  and  Connecticut  valleys,  New  Hampshire's  crowning 

[  295  1 


New  England  Summer  Resorts 

glory  is  its  highland  country  to  the  north  —  the  White  and 
Franconia  mountains.  Here  are  the  breezy,  verdure-clad  New 
England  alps,  rising  three,  four,  five,  and  even  six,  thousand 
feet  above  the  level  of  the  ocean  a  hundred  miles  distant,  riven 
by  valley,  notch,  and  ravine,  filled  with  profiles,  echo  lakes, 
ice  caverns,  flumes,  lost  rivers,  and  other  natural  wonders, 
and  bathed  in  an  atmosphere  that  instantly  banishes  hay 
fever,  brain-fag,  and  many  of  the  other  summer-time  ills  of 
humanity. 

The  mountains  are  New  England's  most  wonderful  heritage, 
and  the  people  of  America  are  only  just  beginning  to  appre- 
ciate something  of  their  real  beauty  and  healthfulness.  The 
volume  of  vacation  travel  toward  them  is  constantly  expand- 
ing, and  the  hotel  season  there  is  ever  lengthening.  The  White 
mountains  are  at  once  the  most  exclusive  and  the  most  demo- 
cratic of  our  outdoor  possessions.  For  the  millionaire,  with  his 
retinue  of  servants  and  his  garage  full  of  motor  cars,  there  is 
beautiful  Bretton  Woods,  'neath  the  shadow  of  Mt.  Washing- 
ton ;  for  the  humbler  business  man,  the  clerk,  the  stenogra- 
pher, there  is  busy  Bethlehem,  North  Conway,  and  North 
Woodstock.  Some  of  the  biggest  and  best  of  the  summer  hotels 
of  America  are  found  in  the  White  mountains,  and  there  are 
fully  a  score  of  resorts,  each  with  its  own  individuality,  which 
are  catering  to  the  tourist  public  and  increasing  in  size  and 
prosperity  every  year.  Golf  is  played  there  on  some  of  the  finest 
courses  in  the  land.  Driving,  tennis,  mountain-climbing,  and  mo- 
toring are  the  favorite  enjoyments  of  hundreds  of  summer  so- 
journers.  Nowhere  in  this  part  of  the  country  are  there  better 
country  roads,  for  New  Hampshire  is  a  firm  believer  in  the 
modern  movement  for  better  highways,  and  is  at  present  ex- 
pending several  million  dollars  in  the  construction  of  three 
great  trunk  roads  through  the  state,  all  of  which  converge  on 
the  Mountain  Mecca.  In  addition  to  the  vast  numbers  of  sum- 
mer vacation  seekers  who  come  hither  by  train,  hundreds  ar- 
rive by  automobile,  coming  direct  from  points  as  far  distant 
as  Chicago,  New  York,  and  Washington.  Some  come  through 
the  charming  Connecticut  valley,  others  through  the  Merri- 
mac  valley,  and  yet  others  along  the  seashore  to  Portsmouth 

[  297  ] 


New  England 

or  Portland,  thence  to  the  heart  of  the  White  hills,  sometimes 
including  Poland  Spring  and  the  Rangeley  lake  region  en 
route.  A  very  large  percentage  of  the  guests  of  some  of  the 
fashionable  mountain  hotels  come  in  their  own  cars.  The  de- 
velopment of  this  medium  of  transportation  and  pleasure  in 
the  White  mountain  region  is  truly  phenomenal,  and  has 
worked  a  distinct  transformation  in  conditions  there.'  One  or 
two-day  tours  of  the  mountains  by  automobile,  using  a  defi- 
nite resort  as  a  base,  are  exceedingly  popular  features.  The 
social  life  at  these  resorts  is  of  the  most  delightful  character. 
With  the  modern  telegraph,  telephone,  and  transportation 
facilities  available,  business  men  nowadays  find  it  possible 
to  spend  much  longer  vacations  in  the  mountains  than  for- 
merly. The  growth  of  cottage  life  is  a  modern  symptom, 
large  cottage  colonies  having  grown  up  in  some  of  the  centers, 
the  owners  of  lessees  taking  their  meals  at  the  nearby  hotel. 

To  describe  the  glory  of  the  views  and  cloud  effects  in  the 
mountains  is  a  task  that  would  better  be  left  to  a  Starr  King 
or  Samuel  Adams  Drake.  There  is  nothing  to  compare  with 
them  this  side  of  Pike's  Peak,  in  Colorado. 

The  mountains  have  a  strong  attraction  for  writers  and 
artists  in  particular,  and  there  is  always  a  large  representa- 
tion of  these  there.  The  vacation  season  extends  from  about 
the  last  week  in  June  till  late  in  OctoBer,  and  to  many  the 
marvelously  beautiful  period  of  autumnal  foliage  is  by  far  the 
best  time  to  visit  the  region.  Low-priced  excursions  from  Bos- 
ton and  other  large  centers  are  usually  run  to  the  mountains 
by  the  Boston  &  Maine  railroad  around  the  Fourth  of  July 
and  in  the  autumn.  The  high  tide  of  vacation  visitation  occurs 
in  August,  when  even  the  largest  hotels  are  frequently  obliged 
to  refuse  guests.  Boston  capital  and  hotel  talent  are  largely 
represented  in  the  White  mountain  resort  business. 

The  present  effort  to  make  the  White  mountains  an  all-the- 
year-round  resort,  and  to  transform  them  in  winter  into  a  sort 
of  American  Engadine,  is  making  promising  headway,  and  at 
a  number  of  the  resorts  some  of  the  smaller  hotels  are  being 
kept  open  throughout  the  season  of  snow.  The  Appalachian 
Mountain  club  of  Boston,  which  has  done  so  much  good  work 

[  298  ] 


New  England  Summer  Resorts 

in  the  building  of  trails  and  shelters  in  the  mountains  and  in 
the  setting  aside  of  forest  preserves  in  other  parts  of  New 
England,  was  the  pioneer  in  this  movement.  After  its  famous 
snowshoe  section  had  invaded  the  snowy  fastnesses  of  the 
Presidential  range  in  midwinter,  it  began  to  dawn  upon  out- 
door lovers  in  the  cities,  and  finally  upon  the  doctors,  that  the 
tired  business  man  or  housekeeper  could  secure  rest  and 
healthful  recreation  just  as  easily  a  few  miles  up  in  New 
Hampshire  as  a  few  hundred  miles  to  the  south.  The  railroads 
have  latterly  taken  hold  of  the  winter  vacation  idea  with  spirit, 
and  are  giving  it  widespread  and  effective  publicity. 

To  this  hasty  generalization  of  outdoor  New  England  and 
its  possibilities  there  should  be  added  a  word  or  two  about 
Vermont.  The  beautiful  Green  Mountain  State  is  a  natural 
vacation  section  and  sanatorium  from  one  end  to  the  other. 
With  its  high  and  picturesque  Green  mountains,  its  glorious 
Champlain,  Memphremagog,  Willoughby,  and  other  lakes,  its 
rich  and  attractive  farming  country,  and  its  beautiful  and 
well-watered  valleys,  Vermont  has  possibilities  that  could  be 
capitalized  into  millions  of  dollars.  Its  climate  is  salubrious 
and  its  people  are  hospitable  and  progressive,  and  while  they 
have  somewhat  lagged  behind  "their  New  Hampshire  neighbors 
in  the  matter  of  developing  the  summer  tourist  business,  they 
are  now  beginning  to  realize  their  opportunities. 

There  are  nearly  200,000  farms  in  New  England,  aggre- 
gating about  20,000,000  acres,  and  the  owners  of  a  consider- 
able percentage  of  these  are  adding  appreciably  to  their 
income  by  accommodating  from  one  to  a  dozen  "  summer 
boarders."  Their  example  is  sure  to  be  followed  later  by  thou- 
sands of  others.  It  is  a  profitable  occupation  when  systemati- 
cally pursued,  and  means  a  crop  more  certain  than  most  of 
those  that  are  raised  from  the  soil.  There  is  no  good  reason 
why  the  farmers  should  not  have  a  very  large  share  of  the 
hundred  millions  or  so  of  income  from  the  New  England  sum- 
mer resort  industry  that  is  already  in  sight. 

Of  the  vast  annual  income  already  received,  the  transporta- 
tion companies,  hotel  keepers,  farmers,  hotel  help,  guides,  fish- 
ermen, builders,  contractors,  storekeepers,  outfitters,  and  in- 

f  299  1 


New  England 


" 


numerable  others,  each  gets  a  share.  The  transportation  com- 
panies are  spending  thousands  of  dollars  in  newspaper  and  mag- 
azine advertising,  special  exhibits,  and  lectures  at  sportsmen's 
shows,  and  other  forms  of  publicity,  with  a  view  to  attracting 
additional  throngs  of  rest-seekers  from  distant  parts  of  the 
Union  to  the  New  England  vacation  playground.  State  and 
local  boards  of  trade  are  helping  the  good  work  along,  and  an 
immense  impetus  has  been  given  to  the  New  England-ward 
summer  movement  through  the  hundreds  of  successful  old-home- 
week  celebrations  in  New  Hampshire  and  Massachusetts,  that 
have  resulted  from  the  happy  idea  promulgated  by  Governor 
Frank  W.  Rollins  of  the  Granite  State  a  decade  or  so  ago. 

The  vacation  season  drift  toward  New  England  that  was 
apparent  a  generation  ago  has  today  reached  the  proportions 
of  a  strong  current.  In  the  very  near  future  it  will  be  a  tidal 
wave,  taxing  the  facilities  of  the  transportation  lines  to  handle 
it.  When  the  richest  men  of  the  West  and  South  think  it  worth 
while  to  invest  millions  in  the  building  of  permanent  summer 
palaces  here;  when  costly  hostelries  like  the  Mount  Wash- 
ington, in  the  heart  of  the  White  mountains,  can  be  filled  to 
overflowing  by  guests  who  could  afford  to  draw  individual 
checks  for  their  purchase;  when  automobile  parties  from 
twenty  different  states  are  speeding  through  Massachusetts 
and  New  Hampshire  over  the  best  highways  in  America,  and 
when  people  of  all  classes  are  so  delighted  with  New  England 
as  a  summer  resort  that  they  want  to  come  back  to  it  in  winter 
and  revel  in  its  deep  snows  and  its  blood-tingling  winds  — 
well,  there  must  be  something  about  the  air  and  the  scenery 
and  the  outdoor  life  of  New  England  that  is  "  different." 

To  those  in  less  favored  sections  who  are  seeking  an  ideal 
place  of  rest,  in  the  mountains,  on  a  farm,  or  at  seashore  or 
wilderness  retreat;  who  wish  to  find  a  summer  camp  for  son 
or  daughter,  or  who  yearn  to  visit  the  most  interesting  and 
inspiring  shrines  of  American  history,  we  extend  a  cordial  in- 
vitation to  come  to  New  England.  Their  heart's  desire  will 
be  satisfied  here,  if  anywhere  on  the  continent. 


[  300  ] 


Education  in  New  England 

ONE  of  the  largest  assets  of  the  modern  civilized  state  or 
nation  is  to  be  found  in  its  conceptions,  ideals  and  practices 
of  public  education.  New  England,  from  the  early  days  of 
settlement,  led  the  nation  in  its  patronage  of  the  schoolmaster, 
its  devotion  to  schools,  its  educational  legislation,  and  its 
study  of  educational  problems.  Because  they  have  so  often 
been  doing  pioneering  work,  and  because  of  their  ambitious 
ideals,  the  builders  and  critics  of  New  England's  school  sys- 
tems have  often  seemed  to  disparage  present  accomplishments, 
whereas  in  reality  they  were  mainly  striving  to  make  clear 
the  ways  to  better  things. 

All  social  accomplishments  involve  composition  of  forces 
operating  in  different  and  sometimes  opposite  directions.  The 
evolution  of  education  in  New  England  reveals  this  in  several 
ways  —  on  the  one  hand  has  been  the  endeavor  to  preserve 
full  local  control  and  democratic  administration,  on  the  other 
to  secure  uniformity  and  efficiency  by  legislation  and  central- 
ized organizations.  .Individual  and  volunteer  effort,  seen  espe- 
cially in  academy  and  college,  has  been  sometimes  reinforced 
and  sometimes  modified,  and  even  opposed,  by  public  action. 
The  controlling  aims  of  education  have  been  religious  and  lib- 
eral, yet  these  have  had  to  be  increasingly  supplemented  and 
perhaps  modified,  owing  to  the  changed  social  conditions,  by 
considerations  of  vocational  necessity.  The  family  has  been 
the  social  unit  and  the  parent  has  been  jealous  of  the  rights 
and  prerogatives  of  his  position ;  yet  progressively  the  state 
has  insisted  on  securing  to  all  children  the  rights  of  a  pro- 
tected childhood  in  the  fullest  sense  of  that  word.  Nowhere 
have  the  conflicts  of  divergent  policies  and  varied  principles 
produced  a  more  intense  interest  in  education  than  in  New 
England  ;  and  while  at  times  progress  has  been  neutralized  by 
the  conflicts  engendered  and  "  dead  points  "  have  been  reached, 

[  301  ] 


nevertheless  there  is  seldom  apathy,  and  there  has  always  been 
present  potentiality  of  new  and  far-reaching  developments. 

The  public-school  systems  of  New  England  are  still  strong 
in  local  administration,  as  contrasted  with  those  found  in 
other  sections  of  the  country,  and  especially  with  those  of 
Europe.  This  ensures  democracy  of  control  and  local  interest, 
though  it  may  paralyze  at  times  the  enforcement  of  legislation 
and  the  widespread  application  of  higher  standards.  The 
father  and  the  minister,  the  original  educational  authorities, 
have  grudgingly  recognized  and  given  scope  and  responsibil- 
ity to  the  trained  teacher,  the  expert  supervisor,  the  agent  of 
the  state,  and  the  legislator.  Increasingly  the  cities  recognize 
organization  and  expert  instruction ;  and  slowly  state  authori- 
ties are  also  gaining  in  their  influence  over  the  rural  and  vil- 
lage systems.  In  proportion  as  the  amounts  of  money  invested 
in  education  and  the  sense  of  public  responsibility  increase,  so 
will  it  become  necessary  to  develop  state  machinery  in  cooper- 
ation with  local  effort  for  the  administration  of  the  public 
schools.  New  England  democracy  refuses  to  yield  itself  to 
any  system  of  autocratic  or  unduly  centralized  administra- 
tion ;  nevertheless,  it  is  slowly  developing  a  state  control  and 
endeavoring  to  find  what  state  functions  may  be  essential  in 
the  administration  which  shall  serve  democracy  and  at  the 
same  time  promote  efficiency. 

Within  recent  years  the  opportunities  for  cooperation  given 
to  state  authorities  have  markedly  increased  throughout  New 
England,  and  especially  in  Massachusetts,  Connecticut,  Rhode 
Island  and  Maine.  Massachusetts  recently  reorganized  its 
State  Board  of  Education,  adding  to  its  control  of  the  normal 
schools  a  variety  of  functions  in  reference  to  industrial  educa- 
tion. There  are  signs  that  in  the  other  states  the  movement 
for  industrial  education  will  receive  strong  support  from  the 
state  authorities,  owing  to  the  advantageous  position  in  which 
they  stand  in  conducting  investigations,  administering  funds, 
and  setting  standards. 

The  various  types  of  education  throughout  New  England 
date  their  origin  to  individual  volunteer  and  philanthropic  ef- 
fort. In  the  field  of  elementary  education  these  agencies  have 

[  302  1 


Education  in  New  England 

long  been  supplanted,  except  in  the  case  of  parochial  educa- 
tion, by  the  public  supported  schools.  For  three-quarters  of  a 
century  the  academies,  supported  by  the  endowments  of  the 
wealthy,  the  collections  of  the  churches  and  the  fees  of  parents, 
not  only  prepared  for  college  but  were  for  large  numbers  the 
real  institutions  of  higher  learning.  Many  of  the  academies 
have  been  forced  to  give  way  to  the  publicly  supported  high 
schools  in  which  are  now  found  in  constant  attendance  fifteen 
out  of  every  thousand  of  the  population  of  New  England.  In 
the  region  of  higher  education,  private  and  philanthropic  effort 
is  still  paramount.  There  are  in  each  state  colleges  under 
public  support,  devoted  mainly  to  agricultural  and  engineer- 
ing education.  Apart  from  these,  the  large  number  of  liberal 
arts  colleges  experience  little  competition  from  institutions 
supported  by  taxation.  Nowhere  is  the  spirit  of  private  enter- 
prise in  education  more  admirably  exemplified;  and  though 
there  are  advocates  of  public  institutions  of  higher  learning 
supported  by  taxation,  and  without  fees,  nevertheless  all  must 
admire  the  New  England  colleges  which  preserve  the  tradi- 
tions of  private  effort. 

Education,  as  commonly  understood,  has  aimed  mainly  at 
the  kind  of  learning  called  liberal.  This  has  been  true  even 
when  the  chief  aims  of  certain  colleges  were  to  prepare  minis- 
ters and  magistrates.  The  New  England  common  school  and 
academy,  the  modern  high  school  and  the  college,  have  seldom 
been  controlled  by  vocational  aims.  During  the  generations 
when  life  was  simple  in  its  economic  aspects  preparation  for 
vocation  was  essentially  a  domestic  and  private  function. 
School  and  college  developed  strong  traditions  of  liberal 
learning,  and  to  a  certain  extent  arrayed  themselves  against 
the  limitations  of  the  practical  life.  In  the  last  half  century 
however  the  enormous  development  of  the  industrial  life  and 
the  declining  effectiveness  of  the  old  home  occupations  and 
the  shop  and  farm  training  which  fitted  for  vocation  have 
brought  into  increasing  relief  the  necessity  of  supplementing 
at  public  expense  liberal  education  by  vocational.  To  a  cer- 
tain extent  the  two  forms  of  training  are  competitive,  even 
though  in  many  of  their  aspects  they  are  complementary.  The 

[  303  1 


fc"  : 

m- 


f 


Education  in  New  England 

supporters  of  liberal  learning  have  at  times  felt  that  the  rise 
of  engineering  and  agricultural  colleges,  commercial  high 
schools,  industrial  schools  and  institutions  of  training  for  the 
household  arts  have  threatened  the  foundations  of  culture. 
Perhaps  the  schoolmaster  has  delayed  the  development  of  a 
genuine  vocational  education ;  perhaps  the  public  has  not  been 
convinced  that  such  education  is  generally  possible  under 
school  conditions ;  nevertheless  the  twentieth  century  prom- 
ises in  New  England  an  evolution  of  industrial  and  agricul- 
tural education  such  as  the  country  has  not  yet  known.  The 
conditions  are  ripe  for  it  and  the  economic  success  of  this  part 
of  the  United  States  dependent  upon  it.  Few  of  the  students 
of  vocational  education  believe  that  it  will  react  on  liberal 
learning  in  any  other  than  helpful  ways.  Rather  it  would  pro- 
mote interest  in  and  opportunities  for  a  more  effective  liberal 
education  than  has  yet  been  seen. 

Only  a  fraction  of  the  people  of  any  American  com- 
munity refuses  to  avail  itself  of  educational  opportunities, 
and  this  percentage  has  been  especially  small  in  New  England. 
It  is  important  however  that  this  minority  be  compelled  to 
regard  the  educational  rights  of  children  in  order  that  the 
state  may  not  be  harmed.  Movements  for  compulsory  educa- 
tion have  had  their  chief  centers  in  the  United  States  in  such 
New  England  states  as  Massachusetts  and  Connecticut.  The 
legislation  of  Massachusetts  now  safeguards  the  educational 
rights  of  children  in  a  variety  of  ways.  No  child  may  be  absent 
from  school  between  the  ages  of  seven  and  fourteen  without 
a  satisfactory  reason ;  no  child  from  fourteen  to  sixteen  may 
be  employed  during  school  time  unless  he  has  attained  to  a 
minimum  standard  of  ability  to  read  and  write  and  has  ob- 
tained the  approval  of  a  physician  as  to  his  physical  ability 
to  do  the  work  on  which  he  is  to  enter.  Illiterate  persons  are 
compelled  to  attend  evening  schools  until  eighteen.  Private 
and  parochial  schools  are  under  public  supervision,  so  far  as 
the  standards  and  efficient  performance  of  their  work  is  con- 
cerned. In  other  respects  Massachusetts  safeguards  and  as- 
sures to  each  child  a  protected  childhood.  A  never-ending  con- 
flict is  waged  between  the  State  and  the  public  on  the  one 

[  305  ] 


New  England 

hand  and  individuals  on  the  other,  in  order  to  secure  these 
ends ;  but  out  of  the  conflict  has  come  on  the  one  hand  con- 
servatism and  on  the  other  a  sensitive  public  conscience  and 
the  determination  to  give  children  their  due. 

Education  may  signify  today  either  or  both  of  two  things : 
It  may  reach  down  and  persistently  expend  its  efforts  on  the 
multitude,  or  it  may  strive  to  create  splendid  opportunities 
for  those  endowed  with  a  capacity  for  leadership.  The  public- 
school  system  with  its  institutions  for  the  training  of  teachers 
most  nearly  affects  the  majority  of  the  people.  In  New  Eng- 
land over  $30,000,000  is  annually  invested  in  the  education 
of  children  or  a  daily  average  of  over  20  cents  for  each  pupil 
in  school  attendance.  Of  all  the  children  from  five  to  eighteen 
years  of  age,  70  percent  are  enrolled  in  these  public  schools, 
as  contrasted  with  69  percent  for  the  United  States  in  gen- 
eral. Throughout  the  United  States  an  average  of  155  days 
school  session  is  maintained  during  the  year,  but  in  New  Eng- 
land it  reaches  171 ;  and  while  the  national  average  of  days  of 
attendance  for  each  pupil  enrolled  is  110,  that  for  New  Eng- 
land is  130.  For  each  100  pupils  enrolled  the  average  attend- 
ance is  76  in  New  England  and  71  in  the  United  States.  New 
England  spends  on  schools  annually  28  cents  for  each  $100  of 
valuation,  as  against  the  country's  average  of  25.5  percent. 
Years  ago  it  was  shown  that  the -productive  capacity  of  the  unit 
in  population  in  Massachusetts  was  more  than  double  that  for 
the  nation  at  large;  and  Dr.  Harris,  then  Commissioner  of 
Education,  attributed  this  mostly  to  the  better  distribution 
and  the  better  quality  of  education  in  that  State.  In  1908-09, 
60  percent  of  all  teachers  in  Massachusetts  were  graduates  of 
normal  schools  or  colleges.  In  the  ten  normal  schools  were 
found  a  total  of  1955  students  with  626  graduates,  probably 
sufficient  to  supply  over  two-thirds  of  the  new  teachers  needed. 
While  Massachusetts  has  not  yet  wholly  succeeded  in  having  a 
professionally  trained  teaching  force,  and  while  the  other  New 
England  states  have  as  yet  been  still  less  successful,  neverthe- 
less, in  comparison  with  the  rest  of  the  country,  substantial 
advances  have  been  made,  and  the  immediate  future,  in  view 
of  contemporary  movements,  promises  well. 

[  306  ] 


Education  in  New  England 

Not  merely  does  New  England  concern  itself  with  the  prob- 
lems of  the  support  of  free  schools :  In  recent  years  the  entire 
program  of  public  education  has  widened  enormously,  in  re- 
sponse to  a  well-defined  demand  of  modern  social  economy.  In 
proportion  as  the  number  of  school  years  and  the  length  of 
each  which  is  made  available  for  attendance  on  schools  by 
children  increases,  so  do  the  opportunities  of  these  schools 
enlarge  for  educational  usefulness.  So  far  as  the  rank  and  file 
of  children  is  concerned,  the  older  schools  aimed  at  the  simple 
arts  of  reading,  writing  and  number,  supplemented  by  the 
moral  training  which  goes  with  firm  discipline  and  religious 
and  ethical  instruction.  To  this  simple  program  has  been 
added  in  the  last  quarter  of  a  century  a  wide  range  of  mate- 
rial contributing  to  the  cultural  development  of  the  child.  In 
Massachusetts  drawing  was  made  obligatory  in  the  third 
quarter  of  the  nineteenth  century ;  manual  training  has  since 
been  added,  especially  in  city  systems ;  the  expansion  of  read- 
ing into  the  generous  program  of  literature  and  library  op- 
portunities of  the  modern  day  is  well  known.  No  school  now 
fails  to  give  some  guidance  into  the  domains  of  science,  his- 
tory, civics  and  art.  The  program  of  the  larger  moral  train- 
ing, including  humane  treatment  of  animals  and  the  devel- 
opment of  thrift,  is  being  steadily  pushed  forward.  Within 
recent  years  teachers  everywhere  are  striving  to  utilize  the 
economic  environment  as  a  store  of  materials  for  education 
with  a  view  to  developing  insight  and  appreciation  of  the 
world  of  practical  life.  Drawing,  manual  training,  gardening, 
household  arts,  are  the  starting  points  in  this  development 
which  promises  to  enrich  also  the  teaching  of  reading,  num- 
ber, science  and  history.  As  a  step  in  rendering  education 
more  efficient  it  has  become  increasingly  a  matter  of  public 
policy  to  supply  free  text-books  and  other  implements  of  edu- 
cation. To  a  considerable  extent  in  the  country,  and  to  a  very 
marked  extent  in  cities,  school  buildings  of  a  modern  type  are 
replacing  antiquated  housing  which  was  once  deemed  adequate 
for  children. 

The  oversight  of  and  care  for  the  health  of  children  has  also 
become  a  part  of  the  program  of  the  common  school.  Medical 

[  307  ] 


New  England 

inspection,  originally  confined  to  a  few  cities,  has  now  become 
compulsory  throughout  every  town  in  Massachusetts.  The 
movement  for  playgrounds  has  assumed  such  proportions 
that  public  authorization  is  given  to  towns  to  expend  money 
for  the  purpose  of  purchasing  and  equipping  playgrounds. 
Voluntary  agencies  are  supplementing  the  work  of  the  public 
schools  in  providing  school  nurses,  in  disseminating  knowl- 
edge regarding  tuberculosis,  and  in  demanding  a  more  ade- 
quate program  of  instruction  in  hygiene. 

New  England  resembles  Scotland  and  a  few  other  aspiring 
states  in  its  provision  of  opportunities  for  the  training  of  the 
leader.  The  three  types  of  secondary  school  found  in  New 
England,  and  which  represent  the  three  stages  in  the  evolu- 
tion of  secondary  education,  are  largely  devoted  to  this  end. 
The  earliest  schools,  still  represented  by  the  Boston  Public 
Latin  school,  which  was  established  in  1635,  and  by  Phillips 
Andover  and  Phillips  Exeter,  were  largely  classical  in  their 
character  and  devoted  themselves  to  college  preparatory  work. 
The  academies  came  into  existence  later  because  of  popular 
demands  for  a  wider  range  of  studies  than  the  Latin  or  gram- 
mar schools  afforded.  Some  of  these  still  exist  on  private  foun- 
dations or  in  working  arrangements  with  school  committees. 
They  form  intellectual  and  social  centers  and  have  had  a 
profound  and  wholesome  influence  on  many  New  England 
communities. 

The  really  significant  contemporary  factor  in  secondary 
instruction  is  however  the  public  high  school.  Supported 
largely  by  direct  local  taxation,  the  best  evidence  of  its  suc- 
cess in  meeting  the  demands  upon  it  is  found  in  the  rapid  in- 
crease of  such  high  schools,  in  enrollment,  and  in  the  gen- 
erous provisions  made  for  buildings,  equipment  and  current 
expenses.  Massachusetts  may  be  taken  as  a  fair  example  of 
this  development.  In  1878-89,  there  were  in  that  State  216 
high  schools,  with  596  teachers  and  19,311  pupils.  Ten  years 
later  there  were  236  schools  and  an  enrollment  of  24,139. 
In  1899  with  a  total  of  261  schools  the  attendance  had  risen 
to  40,592,  a  gain  of  100  percent  in  20  years.  The  last  de- 
cade has  shown  an  addition  of  nine  schools  and  an  increase 

[  308  ] 


Education  in  New  England 

to  a  total  of  53,958  in  the  number  of  pupils.  In  1908  there 
were  reported  in  New  England  90,332  pupils  in  recognized 
high  schools.  For  each  one  thousand  of  population  in  the 
United  States  9.8  are  in  constant  attendance  on  public  high 
schools,  whereas  in  New  England  the  proportion  is  15  per 
thousand.  Recently  a  significant  unrest  has  been  experienced 
in  professional  circles  connected  with  public  secondary  educa- 
tion. It  has  been  felt  that  an  increase  in  practical  studies  was 
demanded  by  the  public,  and  that  forms  of  liberal  training 
suitable  to  a  small  minority  of  the  population  should  be  sup- 
plemented by  those  adapted  to  the  larger  number.  Within  the 
last  decade  hundreds  of  these  high  schools  have  developed 
commercial  courses.  Some  have  equipped  themselves  for  man- 
ual training,  and  a  few  have  endeavored  to  integrate  agricul- 
tural work  with  other  regular  courses. 

It  is  now  an  accepted  principle,  gained  after  much  effort, 
that  the  opportunities  for  a  free  secondary  education  must 
be  available  for  every  boy  and  girl.  Cities  and  towns  above  a 
certain  valuation  in  Massachusetts  must  provide  free  high 
schools ;  the  smaller  towns  are  aided  by  state  grants  in  main- 
taining such  schools,  or  when  the  resources  and  population 
of  the  town  do  not  warrant  the  boys  and  girls  may  go  to  a 
nearby  high  school,  tuition  to  be  paid  by  the  home  town  with 
reimbursement  in  whole  or  in  part  by  the  state.  In  some  cases 
conveyance  is  also  provided. 

Not  the  least  striking  evidence  of  the  interest  of  the  public 
is  to  be  found  in  the  generous  appropriations  for  buildings 
and  equipment.  An  entirely  new  type  of  high  school  architec- 
ture has  been  developed  in  the  last  fifteen  years,  which  com- 
bines good  proportion  and  attractive  appearance  with  com- 
fort, convenience,  and  favorable  conditions  for  the  conduct  of 
the  school.  One  New  England  city,  by  no  means  rich  and  with 
less  than  90,000  population,  has  within  a  period  of  ten  years 
erected  two  high  school  buildings  at  a  cost,  including  land 
and  equipment,  of  nearly  a  million  dollars.  The  total  invest- 
ment in  New  England  for  high  school  purposes  amounts  to 
nearly  $25,000,000,  and  the  annual  cost  of  maintenance  is 
almost  $2,000,000. 

[  309  ] 


Education  in  New  England 

Reference  has  been  made  to  certain  practical  tendencies  in 
the  studies.  There  is  also  a  marked  change  in  method.  The 
older  systems  of  rote-learning  and  memorization  are  being 
displaced  by  a  more  vital  and  direct  teaching  which  seeks  to 
awaken  genuine  interest  and  to  bring  the  pupils  into  contact 
with  the  realities  of  life.  Language  is  mastered  as  a  tool  to 
be  used ;  history  is  made  alive  with  meaning ;  literature  is  ap- 
preciated and  enjoyed,  and  the  habit  of  reading  becomes 
fixed.  Science  deals  with  the  applications  of  the  forces  of 
nature  in  the  service  of  man.  A  course  of  physics  thus  taught 
enables  the  boy  or  girl  to  understand  the  kitchen  stove,  the 
operation  of  a  gas  meter,  or  principles  shown  in  the  city 
water  system.  A  higher  order  of  intelligence  is  thus  brought 
to  bear  on  the  important  facts  of  life,  and  on  public  utilities. 
These  public  high  schools  are  also  giving  increased  attention 
to  the  physical  well-being  of  youth.  Athletic  exercises  and 
games  for  both  boys  and  girls  are  being  regulated  and  di- 
rected by  competent  instructors  so  as  to  give  the  largest 
returns  in  permanent  bodily  vigor.  Direct  teaching  is  given 
on  the  care  of  the  health  and  on  respect  for  the  functions  of 
the  body.  The  team  sports  are  made  the  means  of  moral 
training  and  self-control,  honesty  and  goodfellowship. 

The  public  high  school,  unlike  its  English  counterpart,  and 
to  some  extent  unlike  the  academy,  is  everywhere  a  day 
school.  It  thus  encounters  difficulties  in  becoming  a  center 
of  social  activities,  but  nevertheless  an  increasing  disposi- 
tion is  found  to  socialize  the  body  of  secondary  school  pupils 
and  teachers.  The  more  extended  use  of  the  school  building, 
the  promotion  of  cooperative  effort  of  a  wholesome  kind, 
and  the  direct  training  through  school  government  and 
civic  activities  of  the  boys  and  girls  in  the  duties  of  citizen- 
ship are  already  to  an  extent  realized,  and  the  high  school 
membership  becomes  a  community  in  miniature. 

New  England's  record  in  the  field  of  higher  education 
through  college  and  university  is  easy  to  read,  and  shows 
clearly  the  faith  of  her  people  in  culture  and  intelligence  as 
prime  factors  in  the  success  and  prosperity  of  her  common- 
wealths. This  faith  has  been  attested  by  the  readiness  of  both 

[311] 


New  England 

individuals  and  states  to  give  generously  in  money  and  ser- 
vice to  these  institutions.  Hardly  were  the  first  settlers  on 
these  shores  established  when  they  began  to  seek  to  provide 
the  means  of  education  for  their  leaders  in  state,  church  and 
school.  Harvard  college  was  founded  in  1636  —  by  vote  of 
the  General  Court  of  the  Colony  of  Massachusetts  bay,  and 
a  grant  of  £400.  Yale  college  was  founded  in  1701.  At  the 
opening  of  the  nineteenth  century  every  New  England  state 
was  provided  with  institutions  of  collegiate  rank,  as  the  fol- 
lowing summary  shows: 

Connecticut,  Yale,  founded  1701. 
Maine,  Bowdoin,  founded  1802. 
Massachusetts,  Harvard,  founded  1636. 
Williams,  founded  1793. 
New  Hampshire,  Dartmouth,  founded  1769. 
Rhode  Island,  Brown,  founded  1764. 
Vermont,  Middlebury,  founded  1800. 

"     University  of  Vermont,  founded  1800. 

The  motives  behind  these  popular  and  public  demands  for  the 
college  were  various.  It  was  desired  to  give  the  minister,  the 
lawyer  and  the  doctor,  proper  training  for  professional 
work.  Teachers  and  professors  must  be  well  equipped  or 
learning  and  instruction  would  suffer,  and  general  intelli- 
gence decline.  As  civilization  has  grown  more  complex,  the 
demands  on  higher  instruction  have  multiplied,  and  New 
England  with  the  advantage  of  her  early  start  has  been  able 
to  build  on  this  foundation  a  remarkable  group  of  colleges 
and  universities,  equipped  to  serve  the  people  in  many  ways. 
In  fact,  one  of  the  most  significant  features  of  education  in 
New  England  today  is  the  rapidity  and  effectiveness  with 
which  the  higher  institutions  are  meeting  in  a  thorough  way 
the  needs  of  the  times.  Women  for  whom  but  a  scant  provi- 
sion was  made  250  years  ago  are  now  given  opportunities 
equal  to  those  of  men,  a  condition  won  within  the  last  third  of 
a  century.  Though  a  number  of  colleges  are  coeducational, 
this  form  of  institution  has  never  been  as  firmly  established 
in  New  England  as  in  the  West.  The  education  offered  women 
ranges  from  the  time-honored  literary  or  classical  studies  to 

[  312  ] 


Education  in  New  England 

courses  whereby  a  training  is  given  in  domestic  science,  library 
administration,  and  in  other  callings  which  the  conditions  of 
modern  life  are  opening  to  women. 

So  the  colleges  for  men  are  giving  youth  who  are  to  enter 
on  financial,  commercial,  or  industrial  courses,  the  broad  out- 
look and  high  ideals  of  the  educated  man,  and  also  direct  in- 
struction in  the  elements  of  the  proposed  calling.  A  number  of 
schools  of  technology  and  departments  of  applied  science  in 
universities  are  sending  out  yearly  graduates  of  the  highest 
technical  skill.  Admirable  provisions  are  also  made  for  the 
teaching  of  scientific  agriculture  and  thus  increasing  the  re- 
turns from  the  farms  and  market  gardens  of  New  England. 

The  money  invested  in  colleges  and  universities  is  one  evi- 
dence of  the  place  they  hold  in  the  confidence  of  the  people. 
There  are  in  all  thirty-three  institutions  of  collegiate  rank 
in  the  six  New  England  states,  and  of  these  five  are  for  women 
exclusively.  There  are  represented  in  the  grounds  and  build- 
ings of  these  colleges  and  universities  nearly  $50,000,000. 
Endowments  amount  to  $64,000,000.  It  is  probably  no  exag- 
geration to  say  that  New  England  today  has  $120,000,000  of 
property  applied  to  uses  of  higher  education.  While  some  of 
this  has  come  from  grants  by  state  legislatures  and  from  the 
national  government,  it  is  in  the  main  an  accumulation  of  gifts 
from  individuals,  often  made  at  the  expense  of  personal  com- 
fort and  at  considerable  self  sacrifice,  out  of  devotion  to  the 
cause  of  learning  and  for  the  sake  of  an  intelligent  citizenship. 
The  few  losses  sustained  from  endowed  funds  speaks  well  for 
the  ability  and  fidelity  of  the  boards  of  trustees  of  New  Eng- 
land colleges. 

Another  estimate  of  the  advantages  New  England  has  in 
college  provisions  may  be  based  on  the  number  of  institutions 
found  within  a  given  area.  Boston  is  one  center  especially  note- 
worthy for  a  concentration  of  such  agencies  —  a  circle  with  a 
radius  of  twenty  miles  from  Beacon  Hill  as  a  center  includes 
eight  colleges  and  universities  of  the  highest  grade  with  an  en- 
rollment of  over  10,000  students.  Another  area  is  that  of  the 
Connecticut  valley,  which  traverses  Connecticut  and  Massa- 
chusetts and  divides  New  Hampshire  from  Vermont.  Within 

[  313  ] 


New  England 

this  river  basin  there  are  twelve  colleges  with  a  total  at- 
tendance of  8,400. 

In  connection  with  these  figures  for  enrollment  of  students 
one  must  keep  in  mind  that  the  influence  of  the  colleges  on 
New  England  and  of  New  England  through  the  colleges  on 
the  United  States  and  on  the  world  at  large,  is  determined  in 
some  measure  by  the  great  number  of  young  men  and  women 
who  come  from  outside  her  borders  that  they  may  attend  these 
institutions  of  established  standing  and  prestige,  and  on  the 
wide  geographical  distribution  of  the  graduates.  The  cata- 
logue of  one  of  the  smaller  colleges  for  men  shows  that  the 
students  come  from  thirty-one  states  and  four  foreign  coun- 
tries. A  university  with  an  attendance  of  1587  has  representa- 
tives of  thirty-three  states  or  territories  and  of  fourteen  for- 
eign countries.  A  college  for  women,  of  comparatively  recent 
establishment,  draws  the  student  body  from  twenty-seven 
states  and  from  Porto  Rico  and  Canada.  There  is  an  even 
wider  distribution  of  graduates.  A  class  now  numbering  112 
living  members  is  scattered  in  twenty-nine  states  and  eight 
foreign  countries. 

New  England  is  thus  ministering  to  the  nation  and  the 
world  through  her  institutions  of  learning,  as  she  has  done 
through  her  men  of  affairs  in  business,  finance  and  commerce. 
The  young  men  and  women  who  have  come  from  afar  to  her 
colleges  bring  with  them  a  broadening  and  stimulating  influ- 
ence that  makes  impossible  provincial  ideas  and  counteracts 
the  conservatism  that  leads  to  stagnation.  A  tangible  evidence 
of  continued  interest  of  alumni  and  other  friends  is  found  in 
the  constant  bestowal  of  gifts  which  flow  into  colleges  from 
different  sources,  and  which  make  amends  in  some  measure 
for  the  absence  of  the  grants  of  public  funds  enjoyed  by  state 
universities.  In  many  other  ways  the  colleges  and  higher 
institutions  of  learning  give  New  England  her  best  means 
for  influence  and  for  publicity  in  the  best  sense  of  that 
word. 

It  is  also  encouraging  to  see  that  the  leaders  of  education 
in  New  England  are  taking  measures  to  meet  the  demands  of 
the  great  body  of  young  men  and  women  who,  through  lack  of 

[  314  1 


Education  in  New  England 

means,  are  unable  to  avail  themselves  of  the  great  advantages 
of  a  college  course  in  residence.  Earnest  efforts  are  being  made 
on  the  one  hand  through  scholarship  funds  and  student  aid  to 
bring  the  expense  within  the  reach  of  the  many  so  that  it  shall 
not  be  said  that  colleges  are  for  the  rich  alone.  Again  a  prom- 
ising movement  for  university  extension  has  recently  been  in- 
augurated, whereby  the  colleges  in  and  about  Boston  are  co- 
operatjng  in  furnishing  courses  at  minimum  expense  to  the 
public.  A  special  venture  in  the  same  direction  is  found  in 
summer  courses,  and  also  in  the  system  of  traveling  exhibits 
and  lectures  conducted  by  agricultural  colleges.  Such  an 
awakening  to  the  demands  of  democracy  on  its  institutions  of 
learning  is  a  guarantee  that  New  England  is  bent  on  main- 
taining its  prestige  in  education,  and  is  also  learning  to  make 
its  colleges  more  effective  instruments  in  promoting  its  ad- 
vancement. 

The  movement  for  industrial  or  vocational  education  has 
met  with  greater  and  more  extensive  development  in  New  Eng- 
land than  in  any  other  part  of  the  country.  A  variety  of 
causes,  social  and  economic,  have  promoted  this  interest.  Phil- 
anthropists have  long  ago  developed  industrial  training  for 
delinquents  and  other  dependents.  The  need  of  earlier  and 
greater  efficiency  among  wage-earners  as  a  cause  of  self- 
reliance  and  self-respect  has  long  been  felt. 

On  the  economic  side,  a  growing  appreciation  of  the  place 
of  scientific  training  as  a  means  of  promoting  the  agricultural 
interests  of  Massachusetts  has  been  recognized.  The  specializa- 
tion of  manufacturing  has  diminished  the  value  of  apprentice- 
ship. The  competition  of  European  countries  and  of  other 
states  has  shown  New  England  that  to  maintain  manufactur- 
ing supremacy  it  must  still  further  enhance  the  skill  and  in- 
telligence of  its  laborers.  Leadership  in  industry  has  too  often 
been  imported.  Under  manufacturing  conditions  and  special- 
ized labor,  a  very  large  number  of  children  leaving  the  schools 
at  about  fourteen  years  of  age  are  not  able  to  enter  into  occu- 
pations which,  in  themselves,  provide  education.  As  a  result, 
they  do  not  become  men  and  women  of  wide  industrial  capac- 
ity. The  public-school  system,  however  good,  and  meeting  the 

[  315  ] 


Education  in  New  England 

ends  of  general  education,  has  been  able  to  react  only  slightly 
on  vocational  skill  and  capacity. 

As  a  result,  in  comparatively  modern  times,  industrial  edu- 
cation has  been  superadded  as  a  source  of  public  instruction 
in  Massachusetts  and  other  New  England  states.  Under  the 
stimulus  of  the  Morril  act  agricultural  colleges  were  estab- 
lished between  1860  and  1870  in  all  these  states,  and  in  1873, 
Massachusetts  provided  the  funds  for  a  Normal  Art  School  in 
Boston.  The  Massachusetts  Institute  of  Technology,  founded 
in  1862,  and  the  Worcester  Polytechnic  Institute  founded  in 
1865,  have  been  constant  stimuli  to  the  higher  technical  edu- 
cation of  New  England.  Only  within  the  last  decade  however 
do  we  find  a  well-defined  demand  for  widespread  public  indus- 
trial education,  under  support  of  taxation.  The  so-called  Doug- 
lass Commission  in  Massachusetts,  in  1908,  paved  the  way,  by 
certain  researches  indicating  the  demands  of  industry  and  the 
large  numbers  of  young  people  needing  such  education,  and 
in  fact  absolutely  dependent  upon  it  for  sustained  advance- 
ment along  productive  lines.  This  was  followed  by  the  Commis- 
sion on  Industrial  Education  which  proceeded  to  establish 
schools,  and  to  develop  a  widespread  interest  in  the  subject. 

In  1909  Connecticut  provided  for  free  public  trades  schools 
in  at  least  two  cities  of  the  State,  at  an  expense  of  $50,000 
per  year.  Other  states,  like  Maine,  Vermont  and  Rhode  Island, 
have  conducted  investigations  and  provided  for  drawing  and 
evening  school  work. 

In  Massachusetts  however  the  most  substantial  practical 
advances  have  been  made.  Private  effort  in  certain  directions 
has  developed  schools  to  reinforce  the  apprenticeship  system. 
This  is  notably  the  case  in  the  works  of  the  General  Electric 
company  of  Lynn,  and  the  Ludlow  Associates,  at  Ludlow, 
Mass.  In  all  important  centers  the  Y.  M.  C.  A.  carries  on  eve- 
ning classes  for  workers  in  the  trades.  In  1908  twenty-nine 
classes  in  Boston  had  1,163  pupils,  besides  2,000  students  and 
100  teachers  in  the  evening  Institute.  It  is  not  possible  to 
estimate  the  interest  in  correspondence  work  but  it  is  known, 
that  many  thousands  of  skilled  workers  avail  themselves  of 
this  form  of  instruction. 

[  317  ] 


New  England 

Trades  or  technical  schools,  endowed  by  private  philan- 
thropy, do  a  large  amount  of  work.  The  Massachusetts  Chari- 
table Mechanics'  Association,  the  North  End  Union,  the  Wells 
Memorial  Institute,  the  Woman's  Educational  and  Industrial 
Union,  the  new  Wentworth  School  and  Franklin  Union  typify 
these  activities  in  the  city  of  Boston  alone.  A  combination  of 
public  and  private  enterprise  represents  in  very  recent  years 
an  important  development  in  vocational  education.  This  is  the 
so-called  part-time  work,  secured  by  cooperation  between  the 
shop  on  the  one  hand  and  a  public  school  on  the  other.  The 
most  noted  examples  are  found  in  Fitchburg  and  Beverly,  in 
Massachusetts,  and  Providence  in  Rhode  Island.  Recognizing 
that  a  combination  of  practical  and  theoretical  work  is  essen- 
tial to  the  higher  vocational  efficiency,  business  men  have  of- 
fered their  shops  for  the  former,  and  have  provided  the  time 
and  opportunities  to  their  young  workers  for  obtaining  techni- 
cal or  theoretical  instruction  in  the  public  schools.  The  plan, 
still  in  its  experimental  stage,  promises  well,  and  already  in 
New  Haven,  Hartford,  Fitchburg,  Worcester,  Boston  and 
Lawrence,  the  example  of  the  above  cities  is  being  followed. 
Other  types  of  part-time  vocational  education  are  found,  nota- 
bly in  evening  classes.  In  recent  years  the  tendency  has  been  to 
provide  in  these  classes  practical  instruction  to  aid  those  al- 
ready at  work  in  the  industries.  The  technical  high  schools 
of  Cambridge,  Springfield  and  other  cities,  have  directed  them- 
selves to  this  movement  in  such  a  way  as  to  make  their  work  of 
most  distinct  practical  advantage  to  young  workers.  In  Mas- 
sachusetts the.  independent  industrial  schools,  of  which  eleven 
were  in  existence  last  year,  carried  on  practical  courses  for 
operatives. 

In  some  respects  the  most  important  industrial  training  is 
found  in  schools  which  can  take  the  entire  time  of  the  fcoy  or 
girl  for  one  or  more  years  for  this  purpose.  In  the  technical 
high  schools  of  New  Haven,  Springfield,  Newton,  Boston  and 
Cambridge,  a  large  number  of  students  acquire,  in  connection 
with  their  liberal  education,  a  body  of  experience  in  the  wood 
and  metal  working,  and  in  applied  science,  mathematics  and 
art.  While  not  strictly  vocational,  these  schools  have  done 

[  318  ] 


Education  in  New  England 

much  to  enlist  a  favorable  public  opinion.  The  independent 
industrial  schools,  in  some  cases  for  the  mechanics  arts  and  in 
some  cases  for  agriculture,  founded  by  the  Massachusetts  Com- 
mission on  Industrial  Education,  are  essentially  vocational 
schools,  taking  boys  and  girls  over  14  years  of  age,  and 
giving  them,  by  technical  instruction  and  participation  in  pro- 
ductive work,  the  actual  foundations  for  vocational  effi- 
ciency. In  1909—10,  seven  of  these  schools  were  in  full  opera- 
tion —  the  Worcester  School  of  Trades,  the  Smith  School  of 
Agriculture  and  Trades  at  Northampton,  the  New  Bedford 
Industrial  School,  the  Boston  Trade  School  for  Girls,  the  Bev- 
erly Independent  Industrial  School,  the  Lawrence  Industrial 
School,  and  the  Montague  School  of  Agriculture.  With  proba- 
bly favorable  legislation  many  other  schools  of  this  type  are 
to  be  established  in  the  near  future. 

In  Rhode  Island  and  Maine  industrial  courses  have  recently 
been  introduced  into  academies.  In  Connecticut  a  trades  school 
has  been  established  at  Bridgeport.  Massachusetts  has  sup- 
ported for  a  number  of  years,  at  large  expense,  textile  schools 
at  Lowell,  New  Bedford  and  Fall  River,  which  are  high-grade 
technical  schools  so  far  as  day  students  are  concerned,  requir- 
ing high  school  graduates  for  admission.  As  evening  schools 
they  carry  on  successful  courses  for  operatives  who  work  dur- 
ing the  day. 


319 


Religion  in  New  England 

JOSEPH  Cook,  in  one  of  his  lectures  delivered  in  Boston  in 
1878, -said:  "The  two  most  typical  things  in  the  territory 
east  of  the  Hudson  are  the  college  bell  and  the  factory  chim- 
ney. The  first  New  England  was  a  church;  the  second  New 
England  is  to  be  a  factory."  This  was  his  pictorial  way  of  say- 
ing that  the  average  New  Englander  of  his  day  was  less  con- 
cerned with  religion,  especially  on  its  theological  and  dogmatic 
sides,  than  was  the  case  with  the  New  Englander  of  the  sev- 
enteenth and  eighteenth  centuries,  and  that  the  section  he  was 
describing  had  passed  from  a  theocracy  to  one  of  an  indus- 
trial democracy  more  secular  in  its  tone.  Nor  has  the  situation 
changed  during  the  thirty-odd  years  that  since  have  passed, 
save  to  accentuate  the  change  which  he  then  recorded.  Educa- 
tion and  industry,  school  and  factory,  unquestionably  have 
loomed  larger  to  recent  generations  of  New  Englanders  than 
they  did  to  the  pioneers  and  to  their  immediate  descendants 
who  peopled  not  only  New  England  but  regions  beyond,  carry- 
ing school,  church  and  democratic  government  with  them  where- 
ever  they  went  in  the  region  between  the  Hudson  and  the  Rocky 
mountains. 

But  it  is  easy  to  exaggerate  the  changed  point  of  view.  If 
New  England  today  has  few  such  outstanding  figures  in  her 
pulpits  as  she  once  had  in  men  like  Jonathan  Edwards,  Ly- 
man  Beecher,  Horace  Bushnell,  "Father"  Taylor,  William 
Ellery  Channing,  Theodore  Parker  and  Phillips  Brooks, 
neither  has  the  pulpit  of  the  country  at  large  any  such  out- 
standing figures  as  it  had  formerly.  If  New  England's  school 
of  theology  no  longer  are  conspicuous  for  leaders  in  dogmatic 
polemics — men  like  Taylor  of  Yale,  Park  of  Andover  and  Nor- 
ton and  Hedge  of  Harvard  —  neither  are  the  divinity  schools 
of  Scotland  and  England  nor  the  universities  of  Germany  any 
more  conspicuous,  relatively  speaking.  It  is  not  an  era  when 

[  320  ] 


Religion  in  New  England 

the  ablest  and  most  constructive  minds  of  the  church  are  as 
busy  with  dogmatics  as  they  are  with  problems  of  biblical 
scholarship,  the  psychology  of  religion,  religious  pedagogy 
and  social  applications  of  Christian  ethics ;  and  in  these  fields 
scholars  like  Peabody,  Toy  and  Moore  of  Harvard,  Bacon  of 
Yale,  G.  Stanley  Hall  of  Clark  University,  Tucker,  recently 
of  Dartmouth,  Hadley  of  Yale,  Hyde  of  Bowdoin,  Bowne  of 
Boston  University  and  Robert  A.  Woods  of  the  South  End 
House  have  been  conspicuous,  and  are  still  influential  in 
shaping  the  thought  of  the  nation.  Analysis  of  a  list  of 
leaders  in  these  fields  of  research  and  authorship,  who  live  in 
other  sections  of  the  country,  would  show  a  surprisingly  large 
number  of  them  either  of  New  England  stock,  or  as  having 
received  their  education  in  New  England,  or  as  being  affili- 
ated with  sects  that  always  have  had  their  chief  strength  in 
New  England. 

Moreover,  if  the  point  of  view  be  shifted  from  the  condition 
of  affairs  in  the  churches  which  date  back  to  the  earliest  be- 
ginnings of  New  England,  and  if  attention  is  centered  on  the 
Roman  Catholic  church  which  now  numbers  2,100,000  adher- 
ents in  New  England,  the  fact  to  be  noted  is,  that  until  a  com- 
paratively recent  date,  this  church's  chief  gains  by  immigra- 
tion have  been  from  sources  —  Ireland  and  Canada  (French) 
—  where  there  is  conspicuous  adherence  to  the  deposit  of  the 
faith,  and  unquestioning  loyalty  of  the  laity  to  the  head  of 
the  church  and  to  the  bishops  and  priests.  So  that  unlike  Ger- 
many, Italy  and  France,  Roman  Catholicism  in  New  England 
has  been  exempt  from  the  distractions  of  contentions  within 
the  fold,  and  has  been  free  to  develop  along  spiritual  and  prac- 
tical lines,  unchallenged  by  any  exercise  of  authority  by  the 
State  or  any  hostile  assault  of  "  secularism."  Consequently  this 
church  in  New  England  can  present  to  the  nation  at  large  a 
record  of  numerical  increase  and  development  of  its  educa- 
tional, philanthropic  and  practical  religious  forces  that  makes 
it  certain  that  religion  is  a  very  vital  factor  in  the  New  Eng- 
land of  today. 

Likewise,  if  the  more  recent  invasion  of  New  England  by 
settlers  from  Scotland  and  the  Canadian  provinces  be  taken 

[  321  ] 


New  England 

into  account,  it  will  be  seen  to  have  brought  into  the  region 
inhabitants  who  have  back  of  them  deep-rooted  religious  habits 
and  a  conservative  point  of  view  in  matters  of  theology ;  hence 
the  recent  marked  growth  of  Presbyterianism  in  a  section  where 
it  never  has  been  strong  until  within  the  present  generation. 

With  the  incoming  of  Italian  and  Portuguese  Roman  Catho- 
lics, of  adherents  of  the  Orthodox  Greek  church,  and  of  large 
numbers  of  Orthodox  Jews  from  Russia,  new  factors  have  ap- 
peared, the  precise  form  of  whose  influence  it  is  difficult  to 
predict ;  but  they  are  factors  that  add  to  the  interest  and  com- 
plexity of  a  racial  and  religious  situation-  which  makes  the 
future  of  New  England  on  its  religious  side  fascinating  to  dwell 
upon  and  speculate  about;  a  situation  that  for  its  solution 
will  call  for  ecclesiastical  statesmanship  of  a  higher  order 
than  that  demanded  when  the  Protestantism  of  the  region  was 
dominated  by  the  Puritan  ideals  of  the  original  settlers,  or 
when  the  Roman  Catholicism  of  the  region  was  almost  ex- 
clusively of  Celtic  origin.  Never  having  had  many  German 
settlers,  either  Roman  Catholic,  Lutheran  or  Reformed,  New 
England  lacks  this  element  of  a  problem  of  racial  and  re- 
ligious adjustment  which  is  found  in  sections  of  the  country 
west  of  the  Hudson  and  in  New  York  City. 

The  descendant  of  the  original  Pilgrim  and  Puritan  set- 
tlers of  New  England,  or  of  the  generation  of  immigrants 
who  followed  them,  of  whatever  race  or  creed,  when  he  ar- 
rives at  years  of  self-consciousness  and  analysis  of  his  New 
England  environment,  finds  that  the  New  England  of  today 
has  traditions  of  duty  for  its  citizens,  and  standards  of  per- 
sonal and  civic  conduct  which  are  rooted  in  the  early  theo- 
cratic government  of  the  Massachusetts  and  Connecticut 
colonies.  Church  and  State  long  since  parted  company,  but 
the  ideal  of  a  union  of  religious  faith  with  civic  duty  and 
rights,  as  in  some  way  inseparably  bound  together,  still 
abides.  The  clergyman  still  counts  as  a  man  of  influence,  as 
a  molder  of  public  opinion,  and  as  a  citizen  conspicuously 
qualified  to  shape  the  practical  policy  of  administration  of 
schools,  libraries,  charities  and  local  government.  Altered 
social  structure,  changed  conditions  of  living,  new  forms  of 

[  322  ] 


Religion  in  New  England 

abode  and  of  community  life,  the  rise  of  new  professions  and 
the  increased  importance  of  older  ones,  may  have  rendered 
impossible  some  of  that  pastoral  supervision  of  flock  and 
community  and  that  direct  moral  censorship  of  the  laity, 
which  was  characteristic  of  the  early  ministers  and  priests. 
But  church  and  clergy  are  still  factors  in  New  England  life 
to  a  degree  that  is  significant  and  important ;  and  they  supply 
a  conserving  and  ethical  force  which  is  lacking  in  states  more 
recently  added  to  the  Union,  whose  founders  were  more  purely 
commercial  and  utilitarian  in  their  motives  for  settlement; 
states  where  the  educational  systems,  from  the  start,  have 
been  chiefly  secular  in  aim. 

Moreover,  the  religion  of  New  England  now  bears,  and  will 
bear,  whatever  changes  may  come,  the  impress  of  that  em- 
phasis on  ethics  which  has  characterized  it  from  the  first. 
The  Pilgrim  or  Puritan  was  a  theologian,  but  also  a  setter-up 
of  the  Kingdom  of  God  on  earth.  Roger  Williams  revolted 
against  emphasis  on  creed  above  deed.  Jonathan  Edwards 
left  his  church  at  Northampton  because  he  was  not  supported 
in  an  effort  to  discipline  its  sinners,  and  as  a  reformer  of  the 
Puritan  polity  he  stood  for  a  regenerate  church  membership. 
Jonathan  Mayhew  preached  the  liberty  from  tyranny,  that 
Sam  Adams  organized  against  in  the  town  meetings.  Chan- 
ning  and  his  contemporaries  among  Unitarians,  and  Beecher 
and  Bushnell  among  Orthodox  Congregationalists,  labored  for 
a  theology  that  was  in  harmony  with  the  highest  ethical  ideals 
of  men.  The  anti-slavery  propaganda  of  Garrison  and  Phil- 
lips, Parker  and  Emerson,  ultimately  forced  New  England 
churches  to  hatred  of  slavery  and  support  of  a  war  that  put 
an  end  to  it;  and  out  of  all  the  clashings  of  Puritans  and 
Quakers,  Calvinists  and  Arminians,  Trinitarians  and  Uni- 
tarians, Protestants  and  Roman  Catholics,  and  Conservatives 
and  Radicals  in  religion  and  politics,  which  New  England  has 
seen,  has  emerged  the  ideal  of  free  thought,  free  speech,  and 
toleration  of  many  points  of  view ;  an  attitude  which  has  be- 
come ingrained  and  chronic,  and  that  today  makes  New  Eng- 
land a  singularly  attractive  place  of  residence  for  persons 
who  elsewhere  have  suffered  from  tyranny  or  cramping  envi- 

[  323  ] 


New  England 

ronment.  The  result  is  a  measure  of  present  amity  between 
former  foes  and  historically  hostile  faiths  which  is  unprece- 
dented, while  at  the  same  time  there  is  a  candor  in  expressing 
diverse  points  of  view  without  diminishing  personal  and  sec- 
tarian goodwill  which  is  surest  proof  of  the  high  measure  of 
civilization  to  which  the  section  has  attained. 

That  this  aspect  of  New  England  life  today  has  its  eco- 
nomic as  well  as  its  intellectual  and  moral  value  is  beyond 
dispute.  News  of  it  goes  abroad  and  turns  New  England- 
ward  European  emigrants  who  are  seeking  liberty  of  soul  as 
well  as  physical  maintenance  and  privileges  of  citizenship. 
It  draws  back  to  New  England  her  own  sons  and  daughters, 
or  their  children,  who  have  experienced  in  other  sections  of 
the  country  limitations  of  thought  and  speech  and  narrow- 
ness of  sympathy  for  new  ideas  and  new  ideals.  It  supplies 
New  England  schools,  colleges  and  universities  with  students 
who  wish  to  breath  an  ample,  tonic  air,  and  who,  breathing 
it,  return  as  emancipators  to  regions  where  a  less  free  ecclesi- 
astical, theological  and  intellectual  life  obtains.  It  makes 
New  England  a  Mecca  toward  which  clergy  of  other  sections 
steadily  turn,  seeking  for  pastorates  or  for  opportunities  to 
educate  their  children. 

Religion  in  New  England  has  another  characteristic,  and 
has  had  it  from  the  first.  It  is  a  missionary-breeding  and  gift- 
bestowing  section;  conspicuously  so  in  both  the  Protestant 
and  the  Roman  Catholic  folds,  none  of  the  older  settled  sec- 
tions of  the  country  equaling  it  in  gifts  for  schools  and  col- 
leges, churches  and  hospitals,  that  dot  the  sparsely  settled 
regions  of  the  home-land  or  the  crowded  centers  of  the  non- 
Christian  populations  of  distant  continents.  The  laity  are 
trained  to  give  as  becometh  stewards,  and  they  have  done  it 
so  long  that  in  many  families  it  has  become  a  tradition  and 
a  habit  as  natural  as  casting  up  a  family  budget  of  expense 
or  paying  taxes  to  the  town  collector.  Consequently  New  Eng- 
land is  the  favorite  resort  of  beggars  for  good  causes  the 
world  over,  and  to  it  steadily  wend  their  way  founders  of 
schools  and  colleges,  promoters  of  philanthropic  institutions, 
and  administrators  of  missionary  societies.  In  this  practical, 

[  324  ] 


Religion  in  New  England 

Good  Samaritan  form  of  religion  New  England  has  not  lost 
in  the  slightest  degree  its  long  conceded  primacy. 

New  England's  religion  never  has  been  pietistic  or  mys- 
tical in  its  type,  nor  emotional,  but  chiefly  rational,  ethical 
and  practical;  and  it  still  is,  but  with  marked  changes  of 
late  in  favor  of  ritualism  and  symbolism,  due  in  part  to  the  in- 
flux of  adherents  of  the  Roman  Catholic  and  Greek  churches, 
in  part  to  the  reaction  of  the  Puritan  elements  of  the  popu- 
lation against  excessive  emphasis  on  preaching  and  on  doc- 
trine, and  in  part  to  the  effect  of  an  education,  now  to  be  had 
far  more  easily  and  generally  than  formerly,  which  places 
emphasis  on  the  esthetic  and  imaginative  aspects  of  life.  The 
effect  of  this  is  being  registered  not  only  in  an  altered  order 
and  form  of  service  of  worship  in  churches  traditionally  iden- 
tified with  Puritanism,  but  also  in  the  church  architecture  of 
the  period,  and  in  the  ceremonial  of  academic  functions  in  in- 
stitutions historically  identified  with  the  Puritan  and  Pilgrim 
pioneers. 

New  England  is  still  fertile  in  ideas  and  ideals  which  show 
that  she  is  to  be  reckoned  with  in  shaping  national  religious 
trends.  Though  dead,  teachers  of  philosophy  like  James  of 
Harvard,  Bowne  of  Boston  University  and  Garman  of  Am- 
herst,  are  still  unspent  forces,  living  in  the  many  pupils  who 
so  recently  have  sat  at  their  feet;  while  teachers  like  Royce 
and  Palmer  of  Harvard  and  Stanley  Hall  of  Clark  University 
have  far-reaching  effect  in  shaping  the  thinking  of  lesser 
men.  Nor  would  a  survey  of  the  field  be  complete  which  failed 
to  notice  the  influence  of  Charles  William  Eliot  of  Harvard 
upon  religion  and  religious  practices  during  his  forty  years' 
term  as  president.  He  made  the  Harvard  Divinity  School, 
previously  Unitarian,  an  undenominational  school  in  1880,  thus 
considerably  antedating  similar  action  at  Union  Seminary  in 
New  York  City  and  at  the  University  of  Chicago.  He  fostered 
the  plan  of  establishing  a  Summer  School  of  Theology  at  Har- 
vard, which  was  first  held  in  1899,  and  in  1909,  speaking  at 
this  school,  he  outlined  "  The  Religion  of  the  Future  "  in  an 
address  which  has  been  more  widely  commented  upon  than  any 
other  utterance  by  a  layman  for  many  years  past. 

[  325  ] 


Religion  in  New  England 

New  England  at  the  present  time  is  witnessing  a  drawing 
together  of  the  Baptist  and  Free  Baptist  denominations,  and 
a  decided  waning  of  the  ancient  feud  between  Trinitarian 
and  Unitarian  Congregationalists.  In  the  first  case,  it  is  due 
to  the  waning  of  emphasis  today  on  issues  which  once  seemed 
important ;  and,  in  the  second  case,  it  is  due  to  a  sense  of  need 
of  cooperation  in  order  to  preserve  a  type  of  independent 
polity  in  church  government,  a  point  of  view  as  to  the  au- 
thority of  the  individual  in  matters  of  belief,  and  a  simplicity 
in  form  of  worship  which  the  adherents  of  these  churches 
believe  are  not  fostered  by  the  churches  with  an  episcopal 
polity  and  more  elaborate  ritual,  churches  that  are  now 
strongly  entrenched  and  that  are  gaining  in  adherents  and 
in  power  of  various  kinds. 

New  England  has  to  its  credit  during  recent  years  the  birth 
of  several  movements  in  the  religious  world  which  have  come 
to  have  more  than  sectional,  or  even  national,  influence  or 
fame.  It  was  in  Portland,  Maine,  in  1881,  that  Rev.  Francis 
E.  Clark  founded  the  first  society  for  the  youth  of  his  own 
Congregational  Church,  which  has  since  flowered  out  into 
the  Young  Peoples'  Society  of  Christian  Endeavor,  with 
branches  in  many  of  the  Protestant  churches  of  the  United 
States,  Canada,  Great  Britain,  Australia,  on  the  Continent 
of  Europe,  and  in  lands  wherever  American  Protestant  mis- 
sionaries have  gone.  It  now  has  73,465  societies  throughout 
the  world,  with  3,673,250  members.  In  the  United  States  the 
societies  number  48,780,  and  the  members  2,439,000. 

Judged  by  the  originality  of  its  contribution  to  the  reli- 
gious life  of  the  country  and  the  world  and  the  amount  of 
popular  interest  and  discussion  which  it  has  aroused,  there 
is  no  religious  movement  in  the  recent  history  of  New  Eng- 
land comparable  with  that  which  Mrs.  Mary  Baker  Eddy 
leads.  She  established  the  Metaphysical  college  in  Boston  in 
1881,  having  taught  her  system  to  a  number  of  students  pre- 
vious to  that  date.  She  chartered  the  first  Christian  Science 
Church  in  1879,  and  became  its  first  pastor.  In  1906  the 
membership  of  the  Christian  Science  denomination,  according 
to  the  report  on  Religious  Bodies  by  the  Bureau  of  the  United 

[  327  1 


New  England 

States  Census,  was  85,717.  At  that  date  the  membership  of 
the  mother  church  in  Boston  was  40,011.  There  are  now  over 
500,000  copies  of  the  Christian  Science  text-book  in  circula- 
tion. Reports  show  that  during  the  past  year  an  average  of 
one  new  church  has  been  organized  every  three  and  one-half 
days,  and  the  directory  of  the  denomination  shows  721  regu- 
larly organized  churches,  and  506  societies,  holding  public 
services,  but  not  chartered  churches.  Christian  Science  litera- 
ture is  now  sent  to  all  the  continents,  and  to  over  forty  of  the 
nations  of  the  world,  and  there  are  churches  in  Africa,  Asia, 
Europe,  Australia  and  Latin  as  well  as  North  America. 

It  was  in  Boston  that,  in  1881,  the  New  England  Divorce 
Reform  League  was  formed,  which  led  later  to  the  formation 
of  national  society  with  headquarters  in  New  England,  which 
in  1897  took  the  more  exact  title  of  the  National  League  for 
the  Protection  of  the  Family,  under  which  name,  but  chiefly 
with  New  England  support  and  throughout  its  entire  history 
under  the  direction  of  Rev.  S.  W.  Dike  of  Auburndale,  Mass., 
it  has  done  its  educational  work  in  a  quiet  but  effective  way, 
materially  aiding  in  shaping  legislation  in  this  country,  and 
contributing  to  discussion  and  settlement  of  a  problem  that 
is  acute  throughout  the  civilized  world. 

It  was  in  Boston,  in  1906,  that  Rev.  Elwood  Worcester, 
rector  of  Emmanuel  Church,  began  to  expound  the  relation 
of  psychotherapy  to  religion,  and  the  service  which  properly 
trained  clergymen,  working  with  medical  men,  can  render  in 
curing  certain  forms  of  disease ;  which  exposition  of  new  scien- 
tific knowledge,  together  with  reports  of  the  results  of  clinics 
carried  on  in  his  church,  gave  rise  to  what  is  known  as  the 
"  Emmanuel  Movement,"  interest  in  which  for  a  time  was  in- 
ternational as  well  as  national,  and  pointed  the  way  to  new 
fields  of  activity  by  the  clergy  and  the  church  that  are  yet 
only  partially  cultivated. 

It  was  in  the  state  of  Maine,  in  November,  1891,  that  rep- 
resentatives of  several  of  the  leading  Protestant  denomina- 
tions met  to  devise  ways  by  which  sectarian  rivalry  could  be 
lessened  and  wasteful  competition  put  an  end  to  in  the  towns 
and  villages  of  the  State,  which  movement  led  to  the  forma- 

[  328  ] 


Religion  in  New  England 

tion  of  an  Interdenominational  Commission,  which  has  been 
the  model  for  similar  federations  in  other  states,  and  has  led 
the  way  to  relations  of  comity  in  Maine  that,  after  twenty 
years  of  effort,  make  it  well-nigh  impossible  now  to  urge  in 
rural  regions  that  duplication  of  weak  churches  and  poorly 
paid  clergy  which  formerly  existed.  To  the  credit  of  this  In- 
terdenominational Commission  also,  must  be  put  a  movement, 
duplicated  in  Massachusetts,  which  has  for  its  aim  "  rural 
betterment,"  and  which  has  enlisted  in  its  service  representa- 
tives of  all  denominations  in  the  State,  the  Grange,  the  col- 
leges of  Maine  and  the  Bangor  Theological  Seminary. 
The  similar  movement  in  Massachusetts  centers  around  the 
State  Agricultural  college  at  Amherst,  and  represents  a 
combined  effort  of  clergy,  scientifically  trained  agriculturists 
and  students  of  social  reform,  to  make  the  rural  church  once 
more  a  center  of  light  and  leading  for  rural  communities, 
and  in  ways  other  than  technically  religious  and  spiritual. 
To  Bangor  Theological  Seminary  in  Maine  also  must  be 
credited  an  interesting  form  of  educational  development  and 
"  extension "  service,  which  now  brings  to  that  institution 
each  year  clergymen  of  the  rural  and  smaller  churches,  men 
from  all  parts  of  the  State,  who  for  a  season  listen  to  lectures 
by  members  of  the  faculty  and  by  eminent  men  of  national 
fame;  the  effort  being  not  only  to  provide  the  opportunities 
of  a  spiritual  "  retreat,"  but  to  broaden  the  outlook  and  keep 
alive  the  intellectual  life  of  pastors  with  small  incomes  who 
otherwise  could  not  be  reached. 

It  was  Andover  Theological  Seminary  that,  in  1891,  gave  its 
moral  and  pecuniary  support  to  a  social  settlement  in  Boston, 
which  (now  known  as  the  South  End  House)  has  come  to  be 
one  of  the  largest  and  best-known  in  the  country,  and  has  been 
a  pioneer  in  a  new  form  of  social  Christianity  in  which  many  of 
the  divinity  schools  and  universities  of  the  country  share  as  a 
matter  of  course. 

Boston,  now,  like  New  York,  on  Sunday  evenings,  in  Ford 
Hall,  has  an  interesting  and  successful  experiment  in  gather- 
ing in,  from  elements  of  the  population  that  will  not  enter  the 
conventional  church,  large  audiences  of  people  who  listen  to 

[  329  ] 


New  England 

candid  discussion  of  live  ethical  issues  by  eminent  speakers, 
local  and  from  abroad,  the  financial  support  of  the  movement 
coming  from  funds  left  by  one  of  the  most  generous  of  Baptist 
laymen,  Daniel  Ford.  This  venture,  like  that  in  Cooper  Union 
in  New  York  City,  has  indicated  a  method  of  reaching  the 
people  that  has  in  it  great  and  rich  promise  for  the  future. 

Of  the  32,936,445  members  of  Protestant  religious  bodies 
reported  in  the  United  States  by  the  religious  census  of  1906, 
934,247  were  in  the  New  England  states.  Of  the  12,079,142 
Roman  Catholics  then  reported  in  the  continental  United 
States,  1,891,724  were  in  New  England.  The  percentages,  per 
population  of  the  different  states,  at  that  time,  were  as  fol- 
lows :  Maine  —  Roman  Catholics,  53.3 ;  Baptist,  15.4  ;  Congre- 
gationalists,  9.9 ;  Methodists,  9.4 ;  Protestant  Episcopal,  2.6. 
New  Hampshire — Roman  Catholics,  63.0 ;  Congregationalists, 
10.0;  Baptists,  8.4;  Methodists,  6.6;  Protestant  Episcopal, 
2.6.  Vermont — Roman  Catholics,  55.9;  Congregationalists, 
15.0;  Methodists,  12.0;  Baptists,  6.8;  Protestant  Episcopal, 
3.6  Massachusetts — -Roman  Catholics,  69.2;  Congregation- 
alists, 7.6 ;  Baptists,  5.2  ;  Methodists,  4.2  ;  Protestant  Episco- 
pal, 3.3.  Rhode  Island — Roman  Catholics,  74.0 ;  Baptists,  7.5 ; 
Protestant  Episcopal,  5.8;  Congregationalists,  3.7;  Metho- 
dists, 3.0.  Connecticut  —  Roman  Catholics,  59.6 ;  Congrega- 
tionalists, 13.0 ;  Protestant  Episcopal,  7.5  ;  Methodists,  6.9 ; 
Baptists,  5.5. 

Comparing  the  census  of  1890  with  that  of  1906,  there  was 
not  a  New  England  state  that  did  not  show  an  increase  in  the 
relative  number  of  church  adherents  or  communicants,  the 
gain  for  the  section  being  not  less  than  15  percent  during  a 
period  when  in  the  country  at  large  the  net  gain  of  communi- 
cants and  adherents  was  less  than  7  percent.  Analysis  of  the 
number  of  residents  of  the  section,  who  at  the  two  periods  of 
census-taking  confessed  lack  of  any  church  affiliation,  shows 
a  decrease.  So  that  there  is  convincing  proof  that,  relatively 
speaking,  the  section  is  not  becoming  less  religious. 


330  ] 


Publicity  in  New  England 

PUBLICITY  as  beginning  to  be  understood  in  New  England 
commands  a  wide  angle  of  vision  and  effort.  Not  merely  is  it 
regarded  as  the  tool  or  agency  of  an  individual  or  business 
organization,  but  a  prime  cause,  a  factor,  in  bringing  about  a 
larger  realization,  prophetic  almost  of  what  we  have  come  to 
believe  New  England's  future  holds  in  store. 

Publicity,  of  course,  includes  advertising  of  every  sort. 
More  than  that,  it  marshals  the  sentiment  of  organization 
and  community,  and  makes  effective  the  power  of  this  senti- 
ment in  accomplishing  the  results  towards  which  this  sentiment 
tends.  It  becomes,  in  a  subtle  and  irresistible  form,  the  agency 
of  evolution.  More  than  that,  publicity,  rightly  understood,  is 
the  voice  of  the  prophetic  instinct  of  an  epoch.  It  is  more 
the  articulate  energy  of  a  propaganda. 

It  is  well  to  bear  in  mind  that  all  the  arts  of  scientific  pub- 
licity as  measurably  perfected  in  the  last  half  century  are 
now  being  studied  carefully  by  thousands,  who  at  least  if  they 
do  not  comprehend  all  of  its  resources  are  helping  to  complete 
them.  Hundreds  of  able  and  well-educated  men  in  this  section 
are  devoting  a  large  part  of  their  energies  to  the  perfection 
of  methods  of  using  scientific  publicity  to  the  fullest  possible 
advantage ;  making  this,  in  short,  their  life  work.  Consequently, 
there  has  been  developed  a  breadth  of  vision,  a  range  of  power, 
and  a  sureness  of  application  in  the  use  of  this  modern  force 
which  makes  it  in  given  cases  well-nigh  irresistible.  For  the 
most  part,  it  has  been  used  selfishly  by  individuals  and  groups 
of  individuals  for  the  purpose  of  accomplishing  results  not  al- 
ways conducive  to  the  general  welfare. 

A  most  significant  development  however  in  the  past  few 
years,  more  particularly  observable  in  the  past  two  years  in 
New  England,  has  been  the  use  of  the  best  arts  of  publicity 
for  the  accomplishment  of  purposes  directly  connected  with  the 

[  331  ] 


New  England 

welfare  of  communities  and  of  this  entire  section.  This  has  in- 
volved an  educational  process  that  has  reacted  most  favorably 
upon  the  minds  and  methods  of  those  who  make  the  profession 
of  advertising  their  life  work.  It  has  brought  them  into  touch 
with  the  associated  effort  of  business  men  to  produce  better 
commercial  and  economic  conditions,  and  has  made  them  in 
many  cases  the  exponents  and  advisers  of  chambers  of  com- 
merce and  other  organizations  working  for  the  general  welfare. 

In  this  development  there  has  been  an  unusual  awakening 
of  appreciation  for  methods  that  hitherto  have  been  regarded 
somewhat  askance.  There  has  been  much  aversion  in  the 
past  to  what  might  be  termed  self-advertising,  even  though 
applied  to  organizations  and  communities,  and  a  more  or  less 
general  feeling  that  this  involved  something  reprehensible 
and  lacking  in  good  taste.  The  constant  setting  forth  even 
in  good,  sensible,  practical  form  of  the  superiority  and  ad- 
vantages of  a  city  or  a  business  has  been  in  times  past  re- 
garded in  New  England  as  little  short  of  immodest  and  un- 
dignified self-glorification.  Now  it  is  becoming  to  thousands 
of  minds  quite  apparent  that  the  truth  about  progress,  spread 
as  widely  as  possible,  becomes  an  essential  factor  in  accelera- 
ting that  progress.  Publicity  in  a  reasonable  and  proper 
form  about  a  good  thing  makes  that  good  thing  better  known, 
and  therefore  more  beneficial  to  a  greater  number.  Accord- 
ingly we  find  advertising  in  its  best  sense  being  employed, 
not  only  by  chambers  of  commerce  and  commercial  organiza- 
tions but  also  by  religious  and  social  groups,  without  any 
hesitation  or  apology. 

This  development  has  been  coincident  with  the  cooperative 
tendency  of  this  age.  It  is  in  a  way  a  world  movement,  but 
which  has  only  lately  become  manifest  in  New  England,  and 
here,  because  of  racial  and  educational  influence,  seems  des- 
tined to  reach  a  very  high  expression  of  efficiency. 

It  is  to  be  remarked  that  in  connection  with  the  work  of 
organizations  having  for  their  purpose  the  commercial,  physi- 
cal, social  or  moral  development  of  a  community,  the  need  for 
publicity  which  finds  expression  most  commonly  is  guided 
by  a  consensus  of  opinion  arrived  at  through  the  concerted 

[  332  ] 


Publicity  in  New  England 

effort  of  the  ablest  members  of  such  organizations  working 
in  committee,  therefore  the  publicity  which  emanates  under 
such  conditions  is  to  a  greater  extent  unselfish  in  its  ten- 
dencies than  almost  any  other  form  of  advertising,  and  is 
sure  to  be  more  effective  in  accomplishing  the  result  aimed  at. 
Such  publicity  bears  on  its  face  the  evidence  of  public  spirit, 
and  finds  most  ready  access  to  the  minds  of  those  who  are  to 
be  influenced. 

A  curious  and  quite  significant  result  of  this  effort  to  gain 
expression  on  the  part  of  organized  bodies  has  been  the  es- 
tablishment of  numerous  periodicals  —  organs  of  the  body 
seeking  self-expression.  These  periodicals  become  in  a  way 
a  most  influential  source  of  information  and  dissemination 
of  opinion.  They  are  being  organized  and  perfected,  not 
in  opposition  to  established  newspapers  and  magazines,  but 
rather  as  agencies  of  a  fuller  and  freer  expression  of  the  ac- 
tivities of  the  groups  producing  and  supporting  them  than 
could  be  gained  in  any  other  way.  Much  of  the  routine  busi- 
ness of  commercial  and  other  organizations  of  importance 
to  the  membership  of  these  bodies  would  not  be  regarded  as 
news  of  interest  to  the  community  at  large,  and  therefore 
would  find  difficulty  in  gaining  admission  to  the  columns 
of  newspapers ;  so  a  paper  is  published  for ,  the  members 
alone.  It  is  to  be  doubted  moreover  whether  in  any  other 
manner  so  accurate  and  complete  information  could  be  com- 
municated to  those  who  are  interested. 

To  those  who  believe  we  are  now  in  an  era  of  subsidized 
newspapers  and  periodicals,  it  might  be  considered  that  the 
up-springing  of  this  class  of  organ,  for  procuring  publicity 
on  behalf  of  semi-public  organizations  for  mutual  improve- 
ment and  the  perfecting  of  conditions  affecting  the  public  at 
large,  is  a  natural  and  inevitable  safeguard  developed  at  the 
right  time  out  of  conditions  that  could  not  have  resulted 
otherwise.  However  this  may  be,  this  new  race  of  periodicals 
is  here,  is  growing  in  strength  and  efficiency,  and  will  per- 
force continue  to  increase  in  influence  until  the  result  is  ac- 
complished for  which  they  have  been  created. 

It  can  hardly  be  doubted  that  in  addition  to  the  develop- 

[  333  ] 


New  England 

ment  of  these  publications  there  has  been  spread  abroad 
amongst  writers  and  newspaper  men  a  new  appreciation  of 
the  value  of  associated  effort  strongly  tinged  with  altruism, 
which  will  in  time  bear  fruit  in  the  columns  of  long-estab- 
lished newspapers  and  periodicals  conducted  for  private  in- 
terests. If  there  exists  scepticism  on  the  part  of  newspaper 
writers  and  proprietors,  with  regard  to  the  practicability 
of  many  projects  advanced  for  local  or  sectional  improve- 
ment, it  will  in  time  be  gradually  dissipated  and  replaced  by 
a  desire  to  take  the  leadership  in  work  of  this  character  and 
gain  for  their  own  enterprises  the  prestige  which  now  in  a 
large  measure  seems  to  escape  them. 

Along  with  the  development  of  this  thought  of  practical 
publicity  is  coming  a  deeper  understanding  of  the  uses  of 
scientific  advertising  in  relation  to  the  promotion  of  the 
larger  interests  of  the  community,  in  its  special  application 
to  manufacturing  and  trade  in  general.  Many  men  of  special 
attainment  and  experience  have  for  years  given  consideration 
to  this  question.  Already  there  has  been  created  a  voluminous 
literature  on  this  subject.  Groups,  clubs  and  special  agencies 
have  developed  a  knowledge  and  practice  of  advertising  as 
applied  to  the  development  of  every  sort  of  product.  Pro- 
fessed experts  have  considered  every  angle  of  the  subject, 
and  have  exhaustively  investigated  sources  of  information 
necessary  to  the  formation  of  accurate  judgment  with  regard 
to  particular  problems.  Every  avenue  of  information  is  probed 
by  the  publicity  man  utilizing  all  modern  facilities  and  sources 
of  knowledge.  Advertising  thus  is  becoming  scientific  because 
every  science  is  drawn  upon  in  aid  of  it.  Advertising  is  be- 
coming an  art  because  all  arts  are  levied  upon  and  pay  tribute 
to  the  same  end.  The  advertising  man  therefore,  in  proportion 
as  his  work  is  scientifically  performed,  takes  high  rank  among 
the  professional  forces  of  his  time  and  locality.  Marshaling 
all  his  resources  he  turns  to  the  solution  of  special  problems 
affecting  New  England's  progress.  New  England  is  a  manu- 
facturing section.  The  success  of  its  interests  therefore 
depends  largely  upon  perfecting  methods  of  making  manu- 
facturing more  successful.  A  wide  survey  of  conditions  sur- 

[  334  ] 


Publicity  in  New  England 

rounding  manufacturing  shows  that  the  greatest  possible 
development  involves  attention  to  economic  and  social  prob- 
lems, and  also  to  consideration  of  another  vital  interest  — 
agriculture. 

The  publicity  man  undertakes  to  make  a  wide  survey  of 
all  these  subjects  in  their  proper  relations  one  to  the  other, 
and  to  apply  such  energies  as  will  help  perfect  a  higher  de- 
gree of  correlation  and  a  greater  measure  of  success.  Work- 
ing from  this  point  of  view  he  aims  to  diffuse  as  widely  as 
possible  amongst  the  people  a  general  and  accurate  knowl- 
edge of  conditions  as  they  exist,  of  opportunities  to  be  de- 
veloped, of  obstacles  to  be  removed,  and  of  methods  which 
must  be  employed  in  order  to  show  greatest  results.  This 
work  is  undertaken  through  many  organizations  whose  defi- 
nite approval  is  to  be  secured  and  voiced  through  the  right 
channels.  Technical  and  educational  institutions  are  drawn 
upon  for  this  work.  Newspapers,  magazines,  periodicals,  and 
every  sort  of  avenue  for  reaching  the  public  are  utilized. 

The  organizations  which  advertising  and  publicity  men  are 
perfecting  in  the  large  centers  of  population  become  effective 
in  spreading  the  truth  so  that  the  consensus  of  opinion  of  the 
best  minds  in  the  whole  section  becomes  operative  in  all  bodies 
working  in  harmony  with  them.  Coincident  with  this  work 
comes  the  continuous  effort  of  individuals  to  apply  the  best 
methods  and  knowledge  of  the  business  of  advertising  to  the 
development  of  particular  enterprises,  chiefly  manufacturing 
plants  producing  articles  of  value  to  the  general  public.  In 
so  far  as  the  managers  and  owners  of  these  enterprises  have 
become  impressed  with  the  viewpoint  established  by  associated 
effort  the  work  of  promoting  their  interests  becomes  relatively 
easy.  This  work  involves  the  application  of  many  well-known 
principles  of  scientific  publicity  in  use  for  years  and  carried 
to  a  high  degree  of  success  in  many  parts  of  the  country.  The 
successful  application  of  scientific  publicity  plans  to  the 
manufacturer's  problem  depends  at  first  upon  a  thorough 
analysis  and  an  accurate  comprehension  of  trade  conditions, 
public  demand,  the  equipment  and  resources  of  the  plant,  the 
desirability,  degree  of  perfection,  and  the  quality  of  the  arti- 

[  335  ] 


/BELIEVE  in  New  England    lln  the  preemi- 
nence of  her  location  as  the  gateway  to  Europe    1  In 
the  beauty  and  healthfulness  of  her  hills  and  lakes 
fin  the  undeveloped,  unlimited  power  of  her  rivers, 
and  the  ocean  commerce  of  her  seaports    fin  the 
variety  and  marvelous  efficiency  of  her  industries    fin 
the  skill  and  inventive  genius  of  her  workmen,  the  pub- 
lic spirit  of  her  business  men,  and  the  resulting  pros- 
perity of  her  people. 

I  believe  in  New  England's  mission  fin  the 
glory  of  her  past  and  the  greatness  of  her  future  —  and 
I  believe  that  the  same  spirit  of  the  Boston  Tea  Party, 
of  Lexington,  and  the  Civil  War  —  the  spirit  that 
lavishly  gave  its  blood,  brawn,  brains  and  money  to  the 
upbuilding  of  the  country  —  still  lives  in  New  England's 
sons  and  daughters,  and  waits  only  the  word  to  call  all 
New  England  to  the  still  greater  things  which  are 
before  us. 

I  believe  in  the  tremendous,  transforming  power  of 
optimism ;  I  believe  that  it  is  lack  of  faith  which  checks 
the  development  of  individuals,  associations  and  sec- 
tions 1  That  skepticism  is  the  only  thing  which  stands 
between  New  England  and  her  great  destiny  1  And 
that  when  pessimism  is  transformed  to  optimism,  New 
England  will  again  take  her  rightful  place  in  the  van- 
guard of  industrial  progress. 

Therefore  I  am  resolved  that  I  will  avoid,  and 
help  others  to  escape  from,  the  deadening,  demoralizing 
rut  of  criticism,  skepticism  and  inertia  IThat  I  will  be 
a  booster,  not  a  knocker  1And  that  I  will  neglect  no 
opportunity  to  show  my  faith  in  the  future  of 
New  England  and  to  labor  unceasingly  for  its 
fulfilment. 

Copyright,  1910,  by  Pilgrim  Publicity  Association,  Boston,  Mass. 


NEW   ENGLAND  CREDO 


Publicity  in  New  England 

cle  manufactured.  It  also  involves  a  grasp  of  all  the  latest  and 
most  efficient  methods  employed  anywhere  in  promoting  the 
manufacture,  distribution  and  sale  of  similar  articles.  Not  to 
know  the  latest  and  most  efficient  methods  involves  a  serious 
handicap.  In  perfecting  his  plans  therefore  the  publicity  man 
aims  to  secure  as  large  a  measure  as  possible  of  sympathy 
and  cooperation  from  those  in  management  of  the  enterprise 
he  is  expected  to  promote.  Without  this  help  his  work  is 
seriously  hindered.  With  the  fullest  possible  support  the  ap- 
parently radical  measures  he  proposes  are  certain  to  have 
thorough  discussion  and  often  after  careful  judgment,  ample 
opportunities  to  be  tested. 

Advertising  for  a  manufacturer  aims  to  draw  a  straight 
line  between  his  product  and  the  brain  of  the  consumer.  This 
straight  line  being  the  shortest  between  production  and  con- 
sumption is  woven  about  with  many  strands  of  appeal,  argu- 
ment and  description,  so  that  the  demand  shall  be  created  in 
every  mind  thus  reached  which  can  only  be  satisfied  finally  by 
the  purchase  of  the  product.  Alongside  of  this  demand  is 
developed  an  efficient  selling  organization  which  expedites  in 
every  possible  way  the  rapid  delivery  of  the  article  into  the 
hands  of  the  user  at  the  least  possible  expense  and  loss  of 
time.  Whatever  stands  in  the  way  of  ultimate  development  of 
such  a  system  is  in  time  more  or  less  ruthlessly  relegated  to 
the  rear.  Working  along  these  lines  the  publicity  man  dis- 
covers that  he  is  in  opposition  to  many  accepted  methods 
that  have  been  developed  in  past  generations,  and  which  are 
regarded  in  many  cases  as  fundamental  methods  of  business 
to  be  kept  as  inviolate  as  the  laws  of  the  Medes  and  Persians. 

In  newer  sections  of  the  country,  where  progress  has  been 
much  more  rapid  and  a  much  greater  receptivity  to  new 
methods  prevails,  a  very  high  order  of  competitive  efficiency 
has  been  established,  which  it  is  necessary  to  meet  in  order  to 
compete  successfully;  therefore  the  publicity  man  in  New 
England  sees  that  the  full  and  successful  use  of  his  scientific 
methods  depends  upon  gaining  the  confidence  and  support 
of  the  ablest  men,  the  higher  institutions  of  learning,  and  the 
best  specialists  in  the  recognized  professions  who  are  the  ad- 

[  337  ] 


New  England 

visers  of  large  business  interests.  Accordingly  effort  is  being 
made  to  secure  the  introduction  of  courses  of  advertising 
in  some  of  our  colleges  and  universities,  and  lecture  courses 
are  being  prepared  for  clubs  and  organizations  such  as  the 
Y.  M.  C.  A.  This  work  is  being  pressed  forward  without  im- 
patience and  with  an  unshaken  belief  in  its  power  to  prevail 
in  proportion  to  its  real  value  and  conformity  with  truth. 

The  publicity  man's  work  today  is  essentially  scientific,  be- 
cause he  accepts  no  conclusion  that  is  not  based  upon  careful 
research.  Every  part  of  the  world  is  drawn  upon  for  informa- 
tion which  will  enable  accurate  judgment  to  be  formed  re- 
garding particular  problems.  He  is  not  so  much  a  radical  as 
a  pioneer,  working  with  a  microscope  and  guiding  his  course 
with  a  compass.  Human  nature  becomes  his  principal  field 
of  close  investigation,  and  the  democratic  motive  of  securing 
the  greatest  food  for  the  greatest  number  is  his  ultimate 
objective.  In  connection  with  his  work  appears  certain  ele- 
ments of  statesmanship  of  the  sort  which  does  not  appeal  to 
legislative  bodies  or  to  courts  for  the  right  to  act  in  behalf  of 
the  fundamental  interests  of  human  good.  From  this  view- 
point arise  some  of  the  more  serious  problems  which  con- 
front the  advertising  man.  He  is  compelled  to  consider  social 
and  economic  conditions  which  must  be  improved  in  order  to 
make  manufacturing  more  successful.  He  finds  the  develop- 
ment of  agriculture  an  essential  factor  in  reaching  the  highest 
condition  of  sustaining  productivity. 

Along  with  these  subjects  comes  the  investigation  of  trans- 
portation facilities,  the  development  of  harbors,  the  complete 
utilization  of  waterpowers,  forestry,  chemical  and  other  re- 
sources belonging  to  the  section.  Especially  must  considera- 
tion be  given  to  all  questions  surrounding  the  conservation  of 
human  life  and  the  perfecting  of  the  modes  of  civilization  as 
bearing  upon  environment  in  manufacturing  centers.  Per- 
ceiving that  the  wealth  of  this  section  must  necessarily  de- 
pend upon  the  extent  and  value  of  manufacturing,  the  public- 
ity man  aims  to  make  the  manufactured  article  the  vehicle  for 
every  sort  of  improvement  necessary  for  its  ultimate  perfec- 
tion to  the  highest  possible  standard  and  the  perpetuation  of 

[  338  ] 


Publicity  in  New  England 

its  success  along  the  most  approved  lines  of  material  prog- 
ress. The  manufacturer  in  order  to  succeed  in  the  highest 
measure  must  necessarily  make  the  best  article.  In  order  to 
make  the  best  article  he  needs  to  perfect  the  best  plant  and 
machinery;  finally,  he  needs  the  best  type  of  workmen  living 
under  the  best  possible  modern  conditions.  Publicity  aims 
at  securing  all  of  these  conditions  at  the  same  time  that  it 
promotes  the  sale  of  the  article.  It  perfects  the  plant  while  it 
increases  the  trade  territory.  It  improves  the  scale  of  living  of 
the  worker  while  it  increases  the  output  of  the  factory.  It  adds 
to  the  facilities  for  manufacturing  while  it  adds  new  thousands 
to  the  list  of  purchasers.  It  guards  against  deterioration  of 
the  article  while  it  provides  against  glut  or  dullness  in  the 
general  market.  A  harmony  of  result  is  arrived  at  by  a  hard- 
headed  attention  to  all  the  details  that  are  factors  in  the  case. 

In  the  effort  to  bring  about  such  important  results  is  af- 
forded ample  opportunity  to  exercise  qualities  of  statesman- 
ship to  the  extent  that  where  new  laws  are  required  to  effect 
these  results  he  aids  in  securing  them ;  otherwise  he  places  the 
emphasis  of  his  work  on  the  best  of  existing  lines  of  approved 
effort  whether  already  embodied  in  legislation  or  not.  He  ap- 
preciates thoroughly  that  advertising  compels  evolution  up- 
wards, and  proceeds  to  exercise  all  of  his  ability  in  aid  of 
that  force.  He  does  not  hesitate  therefore  to  call  upon 
bankers,  societies,  educators  and  political  leaders  to  assist 
in  producing  conditions  that  approximate  towards  the  ideal. 

Publicity  men  in  New  England  are  forced  to  accept  many 
compromises,  knowing  that  civilization  progresses  by  com- 
promises, but  seeing  clearly  also  that  it  often  consigns  to 
oblivion  the  man  who  makes  them.  The  advertising  man  who 
would  succeed  must  be  uncompromising  in  the  right  and  hold 
to  truth  as  the  compass  to  the  pole  star.  Whatever  cause  he 
undertakes  he  aims  to  apply  right  methods  of  publicity  in 
unifying  sentiment  regarding  it.  Lacking  this  there  has  been 
no  general  comprehension  of  the  ends  to  be  accomplished 
diffused  amongst  those  who  are  interested  in  achieving  them. 
If  it  be  a  movement  to  perfect  civic  conditions,  many  differ- 
ent minds  have  prevailed ;  if  promoting  the  success  of  a  manu- 

[  339  1 


New  England 

facturing  establishment,  he  finds  that  the  executive  staff,  the 
workers  in  the  manufacturing  plant,  the  distributive  corps, 
all  are  to  some  extent  dependent  upon  a  more  or  less  general 
view,  hazy  and  imperfect  in  outline,  of  the  result  they  are 
trying  to  accomplish. 

Publicity  rightly  organized  in  all  such  cases  becomes  the 
new  testament  of  an  organization  uniting  all  its  members, 
however  widely  scattered,  in  unity  of  belief  and  elevation  of 
purpose,  joining  the  public  interests  and  demands  with  their 
individual  and  collective  success.  As  to  the  agencies  he  em- 
ploys in  accomplishing  his  work,  it  is  hardly  necessary  to 
enumerate  them.  They  include  newspapers,  magazines,  the 
trade  press,  billboards,  street-car  signs,  the  public  forum, 
moving  picture  entertainments,  stereopticon  exhibitions,  and 
a  great  variety  of  printed  matter,  in  all  of  which  the  artist 
and  the  writer  play  a  very  important  part.  As  to  the  outlook 
in  New  England  for  a  better  understanding  and  practice  of 
publicity  methods,  there  is  a  very  hopeful  condition. 

In  Boston,  Springfield,  Worcester,  Providence,  Portland 
and  other  cities,  there  have  been  established  within  the  last 
two  years  powerful  and  successful  publicity  organizations, 
and  others  are  to  be  formed  in  several  of  the  principal  cities 
during  the  next  year.  The  annual  convention  of  the  Associ- 
ated Advertising  Clubs  of  America  is  to  be  held  in  Boston  in 
August,  1911,  and  it  will  bring  together  probably  two  thou- 
sand or  twenty-five  hundred  of  the  ablest  publicity  men,  not 
only  in  the  United  States,  but  in  Europe,  South  America, 
Mexico,  Central  America  and  the  West  Indies.  So  general 
and  worldwide  has  become  the  interest  in  advertising  methods 
during  the  past  few  years  that  not  a  civilized  country  can 
be  named  which  does  not  boast  of  experienced  and  successful 
men  engaged  in  publicity.  Throughout  New  England  large 
concerns  are  quite  rapidly  attaching  to  their  staffs  competent 
advertising  men,  who  become  valued  counselors  in  all  the 
developments  of  their  business  problem. 

The  advertising  agencies,  the  business  organizations  for 
the  publicity  promotion  of  interests  of  many  clients,  are  ex- 
panding their  resources,  and  gradually  publicity  is  becoming 

[  340  ] 


Publicity  in  New  England 

in  New  England  one  of  the  valued  and  respected  forces  for 
accomplishing  the  most  important  results  upon  which  this 
section  depends  for  its  ultimate  success.  Briefly,  publicity  is 
fostered  here  that  the  best  things  made  in  New  England  shall 
be  the  things  best  known  throughout  national  and  even  inter- 
national available  trade  territory;  beyond  this  it  promises 
the  perfection  of  every  condition  of  living  and  the  hastening 
of  every  desirable  end  of  progress.  The  advertising  man  is 
sometimes  called  visionary,  because  he  looks  at  most  matters 
from  a  station  somewhere  up  above  the  blank  monotony  of 
the  common  level.  It  has  been  seen  lately  however,  in  another 
field  of  progress,  that  the  aviator  is  a  man  who  contributes 
from  his  station  in  the  air  broader  views  of  topographical 
as  well  as  social  conditions.  It  has  also  been  seen  that  a  man  in 
a  flying  machine  can  launch  projectiles  which,  if  properly 
loaded,  would  effect  desirable  revolutions.  The  publicity  man 
therefore  is  encouraged  by  every  new  invention  and  every 
progress  made  in  human  advancement.  Every  step  forward 
aids  him  in  securing  a  wider  outlook  and  a  greater  grasp  of 
all  available  human  resources.  In  his  work  in  New  England 
he  aims  to  be  an  efficient  factor  in  all  forms  of  development, 
seeking  no  reward  except  such  as  comes  legitimately  to  all 
who  work  well  for  the  public  welfare.  In  connection  with  the 
Chamber  of  Commerce,  the  New  England  publicity  men  seek 
to  perform  any  service  committed  to  them,  giving  their  efforts 
as  freely  as  men  of  any  other  class  and  gaining  their  reward 
in  proportion  as  the  work  of  this  organization  becomes  suc- 
cessful and  is  made  known  not  only  throughout  New  Eng- 
land but  in  all  the  borders  of  our  land. 


[  341  ] 


Civic  Work  in  New  England 

Civic  spirit  in  New  England  has  manifested  a  wonderful 
development  within  the  past  few  years,  and  the  extent  of  its 
spread,  together  with  its  concrete  accomplishments,  furnish  a 
very  accurate  measure  of  the  actual  advance  made  by  these 
states  as  the  result  of  the  revival  of  civic  spirit  and  work 
everywhere.  That  spirit  did  not  become  practically  operative 
in  New  England  until  after  it  had  begun  to  work  its  wonders 
in  other  sections  of  the  country ;  not,  let  us  hasten  to  affirm, 
wholly  because  the  people  here  were  either  ignorant  of  or 
indifferent  to  its  power  and  the  hold  it  seemed  to  have  taken 
upon  the  consciousness  of  other  sections,  but  rather  because 
of  the  constitutional  caution  and  desire  for  full  knowledge 
which  have  ever  characterized  us.  We  did  not  doubt,  nor  re- 
j  ect ;  we  simply  were  obedient  to  the  historic  tendencies  that 
prompt  us  to  wait  just  a  bit  until  the  other  fellow  has  tested 
the  matter.  Also  we  had  to  overcome  our  ingrained  suspicion 
that  New  England  is  not  like  other  sections,  and  may  not  be 
subject  to  the  same  methods  of  promotion.  We  were  not  very 
quick  to  catch  the  new  spirit  of  federated  effort  for  the  benefit 
of  all,  but  when  we  did  get  it  thoroughly  into  our  conscious- 
nesses we  had  it  completely,  and  when  we  took  up  the  work  we 
did  it  with  our  traditional  thoroughness  and  whole-hearted- 
ness.  There  are  now  many  efficient  civic  bodies  in  all  the  New 
England  states  doing  very  good  work.  There  are  a  few 
that  are  doing  magnificent  work  —  getting  significant  re- 
sults through  efficient  organization,  enlightened  methods  and 
enthusiastic  membership.  There  are  many  civic  bodies  which 
may  be  put  into  the  second  class  that  are  doing  good  work, 
but  not  the  best  work.  And  there  is  a  third  class  of  civic 
bodies  that  seem  to  be  marking  time.  They  meet  now  and 
then,  they  issue  some  innocuous  literature,  they  have  an  an- 
nual "  banquet,"  and  that  is  about  all.  They  do  this  good, 

[  342  ] 


Civic  Work  in  New  England 

that  it  is  always  good  for  the  town  to  have  the  citizens  meet 
once  in  a  while  under  other  auspices  than  the  annual  town- 
meeting.  If  business  men  meet  there  must  some  common  benefit 
result.  An  analysis  of  the  situation  with  respect  to  the  civic 
bodies  in  New  England  and  their  work  would  lead  to  the  con- 
clusion that  the  efficiency  of  the  few  is  usually  due  to  the 
efficiency  and  the  knowledge  of  the  guiding  spirit,  whether  it 
be  a  secretary  who  has  graduated  from  some  good  school  of 
experience  or  members  who  have  caught  the  truth  about  the 
power  of  concerted  effort.  The  less  efficient  organizations  do 
not  lack  in  enthusiasm,  but  in  leadership.  A  school  for  the 
training  of  civic  executives  is  needed.  The  local  board  of 
trade,  especially  if  located  in  a  small  city  or  large  town,  usu- 
ally selects  some  citizen  for  executive  officer,  who  either  serves 
without  pay  or  is  given  so  small  an  amount  as  to  allow  him 
no  opportunity  for  good  work.  He  is  also  tied  to  the  tradi- 
tions and  prejudices  of  the  town.  The  board  of  trade  should 
never  be  organized  unless  there  is  assured  some  money  to 
promote  the  business  it  is  supposed  to  perform,  and  unless 
there  is  assured  an  energetic  and  intelligent  executive.  A 
properly  conducted  board  of  trade  in  any  town  should  bring 
to  the  town  definite  benefits  equal  to  those  the  town  would 
receive  from  a  large  factory  or  mercantile  establishment,  and 
its  conduct  should  be  upon  business  lines  such  as  the  manu- 
facturer or  merchant  would  enforce  for  his  business.  All  of 
these  bodies  wish  to  be  of  real  benefit  to  the  communities  they 
are  in  and  of.  The  trouble  is  that  they  do  not  know  what  to 
do,  or  how  to  go  about  doing  that  which  they  do  know.  There 
needs  to  be  a  central  organization,  and  better  cooperation 
among  these  associations.  There  is  now  but  very  little  team 
work  among  the  civic  bodies  of  New  England,  or  among  the 
executive  officials.  Closer  cooperation  would  give  the  smaller 
bodies  opportunity  to  absorb  some  of  the  enthusiasm  of 
the  larger  ones,  learn  their  methods,  and  duplicate  their 
successes. 

Massachusetts  has  not  only  the  greatest  number  of  civic 
bodies  that  are  -working  for  the  business  betterment  of  her 
cities  and  towns,  but  also  the  most  efficient.  There  are  several 

f  343  1 


New  England 

which  may  be  considered  as  practically  on  the  same  plane  of 
efficiency,  and  they  have  very  significant  records.  The  work, 
in  its  present  development,  is  very  young.  It  is  not  possible 
to  state  that  this  or  that  city  owes  so  much  to  its  board  of 
trade,  or  so  much  to  its  chamber  of  commerce.  These  bodies, 
when  they  are  successful  in  their  executive  officers  and  the 
spirit  of  their  members,  create  business  through  so  many  and 
so  diverse  channels  that  it  is  never  possible  to  correctly  assess 
their  worth  and  estimate  their  work.  They  are  either  the 
visible  results  of  an  extraordinary  growth  in  public  spirit  or 
the  causes  of  such  growth.  Not  only  do  they  accomplish 
much  definite  and  traceable  benefit  but  they  incite  to  greater 
activity  every  zealous  member,  and  increase  his  power  to  such 
an  extent  as  results  in  more  and  better  accomplishment  on 
his  own  account.  A  good  civic  body  also  has  a  very  marked 
effect  upon  the  government  of  the  city,  and  induces  such  a 
modification  of  local  politics  as  operates  to  the  decided  benefit 
of  all  the  business  interests.  Manifestly,  the  greatest  benefit 
any  civic  body  can  claim  is  found  in  its  influence  upon  the 
individual  members.  This  cannot  be  assessed,  as  it  cannot  be 
known.  It  is  never  fully  realized  by  the  men  most  profoundly 
affected.  In  Massachusetts  there  are  vital  bodies  of  this  char- 
acter in  nearly  all  of  the  cities,  and  in  many  of  the  larger 
towns. 

Boston  has  one  of  the  most  notable  civic  business  bodies 
in  the  world,  in  size,  in  scope,  in  quality  of  membership, 
in  history,  and  in  performance.  The  Boston  Chamber  of 
Commerce  has  no  rival,  as  there  is  not  another  body  of  the 
kind  that  has  its  scope  and  method.  It  has  few  if  any  peers 
in  membership  and  record.  It  is  young,  having  as  yet  had 
insufficient  time  to  get  its  plans  in  good  working  order,  and 
to  bring  to  conclusion  the  important  works  it  has  undertaken. 
It  sprung  into  life  as  part  of  the  concrete  answer  to  a  dis- 
tinct demand  in  Boston  for  some  medium  through  which  not 
only  the  business  but  the  public  interests  might  be  intelli- 
gently and  forcefully  promoted.  The  germ  of  the  idea  was 
evidently  in  many  minds,  so  that  when  a  small  coterie  of 
gentlemen  took  up  the  question  of  the  advisability  of  at- 

[  344  ] 


Civic  Work  in  New  England 

tempting  to  bring  about  a  consolidation  of  the  Boston  Mer- 
chants Association,  the  Boston  Chamber  of  Commerce,  and 
the  Boston  Associated  Board  of  Trade,  the  project  appealed 
to  the  business  sense  of  so  many  of  the  leading  men  that  it  soon 
became  a  matter  of  arrangement  of  details,  which  was  accom- 
plished without  much  delay,  and  the  new  Boston  Chamber  of 
Commerce  became  an  accomplished  fact  on  June  15,  1909,  with 
a  total  membership  of  about  2500,  and  operating  under  a 
special  charter  from  the  Massachusetts  legislature.  By  the 
end  of  that  year  the  membership  had  risen  to  3645,  and  at 
the  end  of  1910  there  were  about  4000  members.  The 
Chamber  owns  a  large  building  in  the  business  section  of  the 
city,  in  which  is  the  grain  board  room  and  many  offices  of 
grain  and  produce  concerns,  as  well  as  the  general  offices, 
committee  rooms,  library  and  reading  room,  etc.,  of  the 
Chamber.  There  are  38  committees  for  handling  the  work  of 
the  Chamber,  beside  several  sub-committees ;  and  these  com- 
mittees are  expected  to  originate  their  own  work.  They  are 
not  allowed  to  degenerate  into  indifference.  Their  meetings 
are  called  through  the  office  of  the  secretary,  and  members 
are  called  by  telephone  a  few  hours  previous  to  the  meetings 
to  assure  their  attendance.  The  work  of  the  Chamber  is  of 
two  kinds :  One  class  of  members  are  traders,  and  are  inter- 
ested in  buying  and  selling  in  the  exchange  room,  and  have 
a  certain  different  relation  to  the  main  body  than  do  the  or- 
dinary members,  though  they  participate  in  all  of  the  activi- 
ties of  the  Chamber.  The  ordinary  members  have  not  the 
privilege  of  the  exchange,  but  are  in  the  main  interested  in 
the  public  works  undertaken  by  the  Chamber.  These  works 
are  of  a  very  varied  character,  and  include  many  matters 
that  pertain  to  the  moral,  political,  and  social  well-being  of 
New  England,  as  well  as  the  more  specifically  business  mat- 
ters. The  plan  of  work  which  the  Chamber  has  followed  pro- 
vides for  the  thorough  consideration  of  whatever  concerns 
New  England,  through  committees,  and  the  giving  to  those 
committees  authority  to  employ  such  expert  assistance  as 
may  be  needed.  The  work  of  the  Chamber  is  passed  upon  by 
a  board  of  twenty-four  directors  and  an  executive  committee 

[  345  ] 


New  England 

of  eight.  The  executive  committee  takes  matters  from  the  com- 
mittees, considers  them,  and  passes  them  to  the  directors, 
who  finally  legislate  upon  them.  The  executives  are  a  presi- 
dent, two  vice-presidents,  a  secretary  and  a  treasurer.  The 
secretary  is  the  working  executive  officer  and  the  general 
manager  of  the  Chamber.  The  interests  of  the  Chamber 
extend  to  all  business  and  commercial  matters  that  affect 
New  England,  and  generally  to  all  matters  of  public  concern 
affecting  New  England ;  for  it  is  to  be  noted  that  the  Boston 
Chamber  of  Commerce  is  not  local  in  its  activities,  and  in- 
cludes within  its  scope  the  whole  of  the  territory  of  New  Eng- 
land and  the  interests  of  all  the  cities  and  towns  contained  in 
New  England.  It  is  likely  to  intervene  in  national  legislation, 
in  atate  legislation,  in  city  affairs,  and  in  town  affairs.  It  is 
always  working  for  the  public  health,  and  often  interests 
itself  in  moral  and  ethical  matters.  It  is  efficient.  It  gets 
things  done,  because  it  is  in  earnest  and  the  people  of  Boston 
and  New  England  are  back  of  it.  The  chief  element  of  strength 
of  the  Boston  Chamber  of  Commerce  is  the  devotion  of  its 
membership,  as  shown  in  the  effective  work  of  the  committees. 
This  work  has  appealed  strongly  to  the  imagination  of  the 
men  of  Boston,  and  they  are  giving  unselfish  and  unstinted 
personal  service  to  its  accomplishment.  The  Chamber  takes 
a  fraternal  interest  in  all  similar  organizations  in  New  Eng- 
land, and  is  ever  ready  to  assist  them  to  the  extent  of  its 
ability.  It  is  trying  to  inaugurate  some  system  of  cooperation 
among  the  secretaries  of  all  civic  bodies  in  New  England, 
which,  if  it  succeeds,  will  in  a  measure  correct  the  defect  in 
the  organization  and  work  of  these  civic  bodies  which  was 
specified  at  the  beginning  of  this  chapter. 

Since  this  book  is  one  of  the  enterprises  of  the  Boston 
Chamber  of  Commerce  it  may  not  be  meet  to  further  elabo- 
rate upon  its  organization  and  work. 

The  New  England  boards  of  trade,  merchants  and  business 
men's  associations  outside  of  Boston,  including  the  different 
state  organizations,  reach  a  total  of  about  160,  of  which 
number  Maine  and  Massachusetts  contribute  102,  and  the 
remaining  50  odd  organizations  are  divided  among  the  other 

F  346  1 


Civic  Work  in  New  England 

four  states,  Connecticut  leading,  closely  followed  by  New 
Hampshire.  Appropriately  enough,  Connecticut  had  the 
honor  of  launching  the  first  of  these  great  commercial  bodies, 
the  Chamber  of  Commerce  of  New  Haven,  organized  on  the 
evening  of  April  9,  1794,  115  years  ago,  being,  with  pos- 
sibly one  or  two  exceptions,  the  oldest  organization  of  its 
kind  in  this  country.  Portland,  Maine,  organized  its  Board 
of  Trade  in  1853,  and  for  57  consecutive  years  it  has  done 
good  work  for  the  merchants,  manufacturers,  and  commercial 
interests  of  that  Maine  city.  About  the  year  1870  the  third 
wave  of  organized  commercial  effort  swept  over  New  Eng- 
land. Providence  led  off,  March  5,  1868,  when  at  a  meeting 
of  representatives  of  300  firms,  corporations,  and  individuals, 
the  Providence  Board  of  Trade  was  formed.  Truman  Beck- 
with  was  elected  president,  and  Louis  W.  Clark,  secretary. 
The  Bangor,  Maine,  Board  of  Trade  had  its  inception  Satur- 
day, April  27,  1872.  Moses  Geddings  was  the  first  president 
and  B.  F.  TefFt  the  first  secretary.  The  Worcester,  Mass., 
Board  of  Trade  was  the  third  large  commercial  organization 
to  spring  into  being  at  this  time.  It  originated  in  1873,  under 
the  title  of  the  Worcester  Business  Exchange,  but  as  this 
name  was  thought  to  be  misleading,  the  name  was  changed 
in  November,  1874,  to  Worcester  Board  of  Trade,  under 
which  title  the  body  was  incorporated  May  4,  1875.  The 
Springfield  Board  of  Trade  was  organized  in  March,  1890, 
by  seventeen  of  that  city's  leading  business  men,  H.  P.  Stone 
being  chosen  the  first  president.  Boards  of  trade  were  organ- 
ized in  Manchester,  N.  H.,  about  1890;  Hartford  in  1888; 
and  in  other  towns  and  cities  at  intervals  since  these  dates. 

Of  the  Massachusetts  civic  bodies  nearly  all  are  active  and 
successful  in  work.  We  quote  from  letters  from  secretaries 
to  show  the  character  of  the  work  of  some  of  the  boards  of 
trade  in  Massachusetts: 

Springfield:  "  The  early  work  of  the  organization  lacked 
some  of  the  systematic  activity  which  a  large  membership 
and  generous  financial  support  later  made  possible.  Gradu- 
ally smaller  civic  organizations  merged  their  interests  with 
those  of  the  Board,  so  that  now  we  are  the  clearing  house 

[  347] 


New  England 

for  any  matters  that  may  require  the  cooperative  effort  of 
our  citizens  for  accomplishment.  Our  present  membership  is 
considerably  over  one  thousand.  Our  resources  are  confined 
to  membership  fees  and  dues  and  special  funds  which  are 
solicited  from  time  to  time  to  defray  the  expenses  of  certain 
parts  of  our  work.  The  officers  of  the  Board  include:  Presi- 
dent, first  and  second  vice-presidents,  secretary,  treasurer, 
auditor,  and  a  board  of  twenty  directors.  The  directors  are 
the  governing  board.  A  secretary  and  two  assistants  consti- 
tute the  permanent  executive  force.  The  general  work  of  the 
organization  is  carried  on  through  standing  committees,  each 
committee  having  particular  charge  of  a  special  branch  of 
activity.  Some  of  the  accomplishments  of  the  Board  in  the 
past  have  been:  The  establishing  of  a  modern  building  code; 
an  effective  smoke  nuisance  law;  the  securing  of  trolley  ex- 
press for  much  of  western  Massachusetts ;  the  securing  of 
railroad  rates,  service  and  facilities  of  much  benefit  to  west- 
ern New  England  shippers  and  residents ;  the  establishing  of 
the  '  Springfield  Idea '  for  a  sane  and  safe  July  Fourth  cele- 
bration, the  first  of  its  kind  to  be  carried  out;  the  establish- 
ing of  a  definite  policy  to  educate  the  farmer  of  western 
New  England  to  a  higher  plane  of  efficiency.  The  more  im- 
portant things  in  which  this  organization  is  now  interested 
are :  The  developing  of  a  river  front  improvement  to  link  with 
a  definite  civic  plan ;  the  securing  of  navigation  of  the  Con- 
necticut river  from  Long  Island  sound  to  Holyoke;  the  re- 
vision of  the  city  charter,"  etc. 

Worcester:  "  The  Worcester  Board  of  Trade  as  an  organ- 
ization is  35  years  old,  but  its  principal  activities  have  been 
confined  to  the  past  twenty  years.  During  that  time  it  has 
grown  to  850  members  and  has  assisted  in  developing  the 
Heart  of  the  Commonwealth  from  a  city  with  a  valuation  in 
1890  of  $73.531,000,  to  one  with  a  valuation  for  1910  of 
$141,228,602.  In  other  words,  Worcester  has  practically 
doubled  in  wealth  in  the  last  two  decades,  and  the  fact  that 
it  has  done  so  is  due  more  largely  to  the  activities  of  the  men 
connected  with  this  organization  than  to  any  other  one 
group  of  men  or  factor.  The  population  of  Worcester  when 

[  348] 


Civic  Work  in  New  England 

the  renaissance  of  the  Board  began  was  84,655.  Today  it  is 
150,000.  In  the  Worcester  directory  for  1870  it  required  65 
pages  to  detail  the  business  activities  of  this  city.  In  the  1910 
directory  it  took  102.  In  1890  the  value  of  all  the  manufac- 
tured products  turned  out  in  this  city  was  less  than  $30,- 
000,000.  In  1895  the  value  of  our  output  had  increased  to 
$34,000,000.  In  1900  the  value  of  the  goods  made  in  Worces- 
ter was  estimated  at  $53,000,000.  Today  it  approximates 
$100,000,000.  The  value  of  the  wire  made  in  Worcester,  to 
take  one  single  industry,  amounts  to  $1,000,000  a  month. 
In  a  city  that  has  doubled  its  population  and  valuation  in 
20  years,  and  tripled  its  output,  it  can  well  be  imagined  that 
the  Board  of  Trade  has  its  work  cut  out  for  it  during  every 
one  of  the  twelve  months  of  the  year.  Ten  years  ago,  almost 
before  any  other  commercial  organization  had  awakened  to 
the  value  of  such  an  adjunct,  this  Board  established  a  maga- 
zine as  its  official  voice  —  the  '  Worcester  Magazine.'  It  goes 
to  every  member  of  the  Board,  to  every  United  States  Con- 
sul on  the  globe,  and  to  a  very  large  number  of  purchasing 
agents.  Over  30,000  of  these  magazines  were  printed  last 
year,  and  it  did  a  business  of  $13,931.98,  with  a  profit  of 
$1249.88.  The  Board  has  a  president,  vice-president,  treas- 
urer, auditor,  clerk,  an  executive  committee  of  five,  who  are 
members  of  the  board  of  twenty  directors,  beside  the  secre- 
tary and  his  office  force,  which  includes  a  paid  editor  for  the 
Magazine.  The  organization  is  further  subdivided  into 
twenty  regular  and  three  special  committees  in  which  are  en- 
rolled 207  men.  The  Board,  in  addition  to  its  annual  banquet, 
which  is  the  great  social  event  of  the  year  in  Worcester,  holds 
from  five  to  seven  smoke-talks  annually  in  its  own  hall,  when  a 
lunch  is  served  and  public  questions  are  discussed." 

Pittsfield:  "  Five  years  ago,  in  April,  1904,  the  merchants 
of  this  city  established  a  Merchants  Association  as  a  means 
of  protection  against  ticket-sellers,  miscellaneous  ads,  pro- 
grams, etc.,  and  grafters  of  all  kinds,  the  membership  fee 
being  $2  per  year.  The  association  was  carried  on  for  this 
purpose,  with  a  banquet  and  several  smoke-talks  each  year. 
About  two  years  ago,  with  the  same  organization  views,  etc., 

[  349  ] 


MRS.  JOHN  Z.  GOODRICH 

The  originator  of  the  first  village  improvement  society  in  the  United  States, 
organized  at  Stockbridge,  Mass. 


Civic  Work  in  New  .England 

the  association  began  to  take  part  in  larger  affairs,  such  as 
advertising  the  city,  handling  Fourth  of  July  celebrations, 
means  of  transportation  for  citizens,  better  trolley  service, 
etc.  On  Jan.  1,  1909,  we  established  a  noon-day  luncheon, 
every  Wednesday,  at  our  leading  hotel,  some  speaker,  local  or 
otherwise,  giving  a  half-hour  talk  on  some  live  question  of 
particular  interest  to  Pittsfield  people.  At  the  annual  meet- 
ing, April  11,  it  was  voted  to  change  into  the  Pittsfield  Board 
of  Trade  with  a  regular  membership  fee  of  $10  and  a  sus- 
taining membership  fee  of  $25.  At  the  present  time  [August, 
1910],  we  have  150  members,  with  an  assured  income  of 
nearly  $3000.  We  have  rooms  in  the  Agricultural  National 
Bank  building,  with  a  secretary  who  gives  his  entire  time  to 
the  work,  a  strong  board  of  directors,  and  good  working 
committees.  Our  object  is  to  advertise  the  city,  try  to  attract 
new  industries,  and  make  the  problems  of  those  we  have 
easier ;  make  the  city  clean  and  beautiful ;  help  people  to 
have  homes  of  their  own;  and  to  cooperate  with  the  city 
government  in  every  way  possible." 

Fitchburg:  "  The  Merchants  Association  of  this  city  was 
organized  in  1887,  limited  in  membership  to  retail  merchants, 
the  obj  ect  being  to  improve  conditions  in  the  trade.  It  grad- 
ually extended  membership  until  any  reputable  citizen  was 
eligible.  In  1905  it  merged  with  the  Board  of  Trade,  and 
was  incorporated  under  the  title  Fitchburg  Board  of  Trade 
and  Merchants  Association.  Practically,  it  is  a  social  club, 
bringing  its  497  members  in  touch  with  one  another  at  its 
eight  regular  monthly  meetings,  which  are  preceded  by  a 
supper,  and  followed  by  discussions  on  the  current  topics  of 
interest  by  speakers  of  note  from  out  of  town.  At  these  meet- 
ings we  have  an  average  attendance  of  250." 

Fall  River:  "  The  Fall  River  Merchants  Association  was 
organized  April  11,  1902.  The  stated  object  as  given  in  the 
constitution  reads  as  follows:  '  The  object  of  this  association 
shall  be  to  bring  the  retail  business  men  of  the  city  into  closer 
business  and  social  relations ;  to  make  them  better  acquainted, 
and  encourage  a  spirit  of  cooperation  in  all  matters  which 
make  for  the  general  welfare,  and  to  provide  a  medium 

[  351  1 


New  England 

through  which  concerted  action  may  be  had  on  matters  of 
mutual  interest.'  For  the  first  three  years  the  membership  and 
annual  fee  was  but  $1.  Since  then  it  has  been  $2,  and  the 
by-laws  were  changed  to  admit  wholesale  as  well  as  retail 
merchants.  Up  to  the  present  time  none  but  merchants,  or 
people  who  buy  and  sell  merchandise,  real  estate,  insurance, 
etc.,  are  eligible  to  membership,  but  a  committee  has  been 
appointed  to  change  the  rule  so  that  other  citizens  of  impor- 
tance may  be  admitted.  The  present  membership  is  235  firms 
(a  firm  counting  only  as  one  member).  We  have  but  one  im- 
perative rule  for  members,  and  that  is,  forbidding  advertis- 
ing in  fake  schemes  and  other  '  hold-ups.'  From  time  to  time 
the  Association  has  interested  itself  in  civic  matters,  until  at 
the  present  time  it  is  looked  up  to  and  generally  considered 
the  most  influential  and  broad-gauged  body  in  Fall  River. 
There  is  no  stated  time  for  meetings,  and  no  meetings  are 
held  unless  there  is  something  of  importance  to  be  done. 
Practically  everything  is  done  by  the  executive  committee 
at  special  meetings  called  by  the  president." 

New  Bedford:  "  The  New  Bedford  Board  of  Trade,  organ- 
ized March  5,  1884,  was  formed  for  the  purpose  of  giving 
to  New  Bedford  an  organization  of  progressive,  public- 
spirited  citizens,  ready  at  all  times  to  take  up  and  promote 
matters  of  importance  to  the  community.  New  Bedford  has 
long  had  the  reputation,  outside  its  borders,  as  a  conser- 
vative city.  In  its  commercial  history  two  great  industries 
have  flourished,  the  whaling  industry  and  the  manufacture 
of  fine  cotton  cloth  and  yarns.  Since  the  18th  century  New 
Bedford  has  led  the  world  in  the  former,  as  today  it  leads 
the  United  States  in  the  latter  industry.  The  nature  of  these 
industries  has  tended  to  conservatism  among  the  managers. 
This  conservatism  has  manifested  itself  in  the  community, 
and,  naturally  enough,  the  local  Board  of  Trade  has  re- 
flected the  prevailing  influence.  New  Bedford  has  had  no 
large  project  on  foot  since  the  organization  of  the  Board  of 
Trade  but  the  influence  of  the  organization  has  been  a  potent 
factor  in  its  accomplishment.  A  proper  sense  of  modesty  for- 
bids the  claim  that  the  Board  of  Trade  has  accomplished  all 

[  352  1 


Civic  Work  in  New  England 

the  improvements  which  have  come  to  New  Bedford  in  the 
last  two  decades.  Credit  must  be  given  to  the  public  spirit 
of  the  citizens,  and  particularly  to  the  newspapers,  which, 
for  365  days  in  the  ordinary  year,  and  366  days  in  every 
leap  year,  are  preaching  the  propaganda  of  New  Bedford's 
present  prosperity,  and  are  calling  attention  to  the  city's 
future  prospects.  It  has  been  the  aim  of  the  representative 
members  of  the  Board  of  Trade  to  foster  this  spirit  of  help- 
fulness. That  this  method  has  brought  success  is  attested  by 
the  fact  that  in  the  fifteen  months  ending  with  March  31, 
1910,  $15,000,000  were  added  to  New  Bedford's  industries, 
and  the  additional  fact  that  in  the  first  six  months  of  1910, 
of  the  five  and  a  half  millions  of  capital  invested  in  new 
mills  in  this  city  more  than  one  half  has  come  from  outside 
the  city's  limits.  The  membership  of  the  New  Bedford  Board 
of  Trade  has  been  maintained  for  several  years  past  at  an 
average  of  250." 

Haverhill:  "  The  Haverhill  Board  of  Trade  was  organized 
in  May,  1901,  with  Charles  H.  Hayes  president,  and  Howard 
H.  Gage  secretary.  The  plan  of  work  has  always  been  to 
accept  all  opportunities  to  further  the  prosperity  and  wel- 
fare of  Haverhill,  and  to  devise  opportunities  when  study  and 
thought  could  produce  them.  The  Board  works  with  the  City 
Council  for  improvement  in  educational  facilities,  streets, 
parks,  playgrounds,  etc. ;  works  for  improvement  in  trans- 
portation, freight,  express,  and  passenger,  and  particularly 
hard,  all  of  the  time,  for  improving  navigation  on  the  Mer- 
rimac  river,  a  matter  of  vital  importance  to  every  city  in 
the  Merrimac  valley;  works  to  increase  the  manufacturing 
industries  by  assisting  local  firms,  and  by  inducing  outside 
capitalists  to  locate  plants  in  Haverhill.  In  1904  this  slogan 
was  adopted :  '  If  factories  are  vacant,  fill  them.  If  factories 
are  needed,  build  them.'  During  that  year,  factories  being 
needed,  the  Haverhill  Building  Association  was  formed,  sub- 
scriptions for  stock  obtained,  land  in  the  heart  of  the  city 
purchased,  and  in  1905  a  modern,  mill-constructed,  eight- 
story  brick  factory,  containing  75,000  square  feet  of  floor 
space,  was  completed.  In  1908  factory  number  two,  of  the 

[  353  ] 


New  England 

same  description,  containing  125,000  square  feet  of  floor 
space,  was  completed,  and  immediately  filled  by  local  manu- 
facturers in  need  of  increased  facilities." 

Lawrence:  "  The  Lawrence  Board  of  Trade  was  organized 
February  8,  1888,  with  James  H.  Eaton  as  president,  Charles 
A.  De  Couvey  as  secretary,  Arthur  W.  Dyer  as  treasurer, 
and  about  seventy-five  members.  Most  of  the  mill  agents  and 
many  of  the  business  and  professional  men  of  the  city  were 
enrolled  on  its  list  of  membership,  which  rapidly  increased 
after  the  first  meeting.  Its  formation  was  due  to  a  feeling 
which  had  been  growing  for  some  time  in  the  minds  of  the 
business  men  of  the  city  that  the  advantages  of  the  city  as  a 
manufacturing  and  business  center  ought  to  be  increased 
and  enlarged,  and  the  facts  pertaining  thereto  published 
abroad  as  an  inducement  to  draw  new  industries  to  the  city." 

Salem:  "  The  Salem  Board  of  Trade  was  organized  June 
10,  1901,  with  William  S.  Felton  president,  and  Charles  H. 
Danforth  secretary.  The  Board  is  interested  in,  and  works 
for,  the  betterment  of  Salem,  its  business  interests,  and  its 
business  men.  It  is  especially  interested  in  the  improvement 
of  Salem  harbor  and  the  development  of  the  water  front.  As 
a  result  of  its  work  in  this  direction  a  commission  has  been 
appointed  by  the  Mayor  and  City  Council  for  the  purpose 
of  reporting  a  plan  of  harbor  improvement." 

Attleboro:  "  Recognizing  the  need  of  some  public  organiza- 
tion, the  object  of  which  would  be  the  booming  of  the  town 
and  the  protection  and  furtherance  of  its  industries,  a  num- 
ber, of  business  men  of  Attleboro  gathered  in  the  fall  of  1908 
and  took  steps  towards  forming  the  Attleboro  Board  of 
Trade.  A  membership  of  one  hundred  was  all  that  was  hoped 
for  on  the  start,  but  the  opening  meeting  on  January  4,  1909, 
saw  nearly  225  on  the  charter  lists.  Almost  simultaneously 
with  the  birth  of  this  organization  came  the  announcement 
that  one  of  the  town's  most  prosperous  concerns  was  con- 
sidering overtures  from  several  New  England  towns,  and 
might  leave.  The  Board  of  Trade  took  the  matter  up  and 
agreed  to  attempt  to  erect  a  $50,000  factory  for  the  com- 
pany. In  a  fortnight's  time  the  entire  $50,000  had  been  sub- 

[  354  ] 


Civic  Work  in  New  England 

scribed  and  the  factory  was  to  be  erected.  From  that  time  on 
the  organization  was  called  upon  to  consider  all  sorts  of 
schemes.  Automobile  manufacturers,  marine  engine  makers, 
flying-machine  experts,  and  many  others,  demanded  an  audi- 
ence, for  the  word  had  gone  forth,  '  Here  is  a  Board  of  Trade 
that  does  things.' ' 

Holyoke:  "  The  Holyoke  Business  Men's  Association  was 
organized  January  22,  1897.  The  present  membership  is  225. 
The  objects  of  the  association  are:  Promoting  the  interests 
of  the  mercantile  and  manufacturing  business  of  Holyoke. 
We  have  been  successful  in  protecting  the  merchants  from 
trading  stamps,  program  advertising,  and  things  of  that 
nature.  We  have  used  our  best  efforts  to  make  Holyoke  a 
good  place  to  do  business  in.  We  have  never  offered  bonuses 
of  any  kind  for  the  location  of  new  industries.  Holyoke  has 
had  a  steady  growth  from  nothing  in  1850  to  58,000  in 
1910." 

Brockton:  "The  purpose  of  the  Brockton  Board  of  Trade 
is  to  promote  the  industrial,  mercantile,  and  municipal  wel- 
fare of  Brockton.  It  was  organized  in  January,  1897,  shortly 
after  the  Regal  Shoe  company  had  moved  to  Whitman. 
Business  men  thought  it  time  to  have  an  organization  to  try 
to  check  such  removals  from  town.  The  Board  has  since  done 
good  work  in  that  line,  and  has  brought  some  new  industries 
into  the  city.  It  has  also  been  instrumental  in  promoting  in- 
dustrial harmony,  through  conferences  with  the  labor  unions 
and  shoe  manufacturers,  in  several  instances." 

Marlboro:  "Previous  to  1901  there  was  a  Merchants  As- 
sociation of  many  years  standing.  It  had  however  so  declined 
that  in  that  year  efforts  were  made  to  interest  the  merchants 
in  working  together  for  the  common  interests  of  the  city. 
These  efforts  resulted  in  the  reorganization  of  the  Merchants 
Association  as  the  Marlboro  Board  of  Trade,  with  a  mem- 
bership of  about  two  hundred.  Work  was  immediately  under- 
taken for  the  commercial  upbuilding  of  the  city,  meeting  at 
first  with  fair  success,  but  finally  dwindled  until  interest 
seemed  to  wane  to  the  point  of  indifference.  In  the  spring  of 
1908  new  officers  were  elected  and  renewed  efforts  were  made 

[  355  1 


New  England 

to  increase  Marlboro's  standing  as  a  commercial  city.  A 
pamphlet  was  issued  presenting  the  advantages  possessed 
by  Marlboro  for  business  and  as  a  place  of  residence.  In 
December,  1908,  the  constitution  and  by-laws  were  revised 
and  efforts  made  for  an  increase  in  membership,  with  the  re- 
sult that  new  interest  was  aroused  and  many  new  members 
added." 

Gloucester:  "  The  plan  of  work  of  the  Gloucester  Board  of 
Trade  is  to  continuously  seek  to  interest  people,  away  from 
Gloucester,  in  the  place  and  its  principal  industry,  the  fish- 
eries. This  is  done  by  getting  as  much  publicity  through  the 
columns  of  the  press  as  is  possible,  and  recently  by  the  issu- 
ing of  a  booklet  illustrating  the  place.  Its  membership  is  193. 
At  this  season  of  the  year  [summer],  one  of  the  principal 
objects  is  to  interest  the  summer  visitors  in  the  place,  and  in 
so  doing  they  have  accorded  to  them  the  courtesies  of  the  use 
of  the  rooms  of  the  Board  of  Trade.  We  get  good  cooperation 
from  the  business  men,  and  some  assistance  from  the  munici- 
pality, in  carrying  through  suggestions  made." 

The  Waltham  Board  of  Trade  has  organized  a  building 
association  to  erect  factory  buildings  for  tenants  who  do  not 
require  whole  buildings.  In  North  Adams  a  Merchants  Asso- 
ciation was  organized  in  1905.  Framingham  has  a  live  Board 
of  Trade,  organized  in  1895,  with  a  present  membership  of 
320.  "  It  has  secured  the  location  in  South  Framingham  of 
the  Dennison  Manufacturing  company,  employing  more  than 
two  thousand  people  in  the  factory ;  the  Framingham  Shoe 
company,  which  has  erected  the  finest  shoe  factory  in  New 
England  and  now  employs  about  eight  hundred  hands ;  the 
Robb-Mumford  Boiler  company,  which  has  erected  one  of 
the  finest  plants  in  the  country  and  employs  one  hundred  and 
fifty  men;  the  Gurney  Heater  company,  just  commencing  the 
erection  of  a  factory  with  a  floor  space  of  150,000  square 
feet;  the  Williamson  Housman  company,  Young  and  Hol- 
berton,  and  the  Framingham  Hat  company,  all  straw  goods 
manufactories,  together  employing  more  than  eight  hundred 
hands ;  and  many  other  smaller  concerns." 

Maine  has  a  State  Board  of  Trade,  embracing  fifty-two 

[  356  ] 


Civic  Work  in  New  England 

local  boards  with  a  membership  of  more  than  5000.  It  was 
organized  in  the  fall  of  1899.  "  The  purpose  of  this  associa- 
tion," as  set  forth  in  the  declaration,  "  is  to  concentrate  the 
power  and  usefulness  of  the  various  boards  of  trade  of  the 
State  in  one  corporate  organization,  in  order  to  secure 
prompt  unity  and  harmony  of  action  in  the  proper  consid- 
eration of  questions,  especially  pertaining  to  the  material 
interests  of  the  State  at  large,  as  well  as  to  foster  and 
strengthen  the  efficiency  of  each  organization  comprised  in 
its  membership."  Hon.  Henry  Lord,  of  Bangor,  was  for  four- 
teen years  the  president,  being  followed  by  Hon.  Edward  B. 
Winslow,  of  Portland,  who  served  four  years ;  Hon.  Charles 
S.  Hichborn,  of  Augusta,  two  years ;  and  Hon.  D.  J.  Calla- 
han,  of  Lewiston.  The  late  Marshall  N.  Rich,  of  Portland, 
served  as  secretary  for  thirteen  years,  up  to  his  death  on 
December  25,  1902,  and  the  office  has  since  been  held  by 
E.  M.  Blanding,  of  Bangor.  Gorham  N.  Weymouth,  of  Bidde- 
ford,  has  been  treasurer  since  the  inception  of  the  Board. 

Portland:  "  The  Portland  Board  of  Trade  was  founded  in 
1853,  and  has  continuously  asserted  itself  in  the  best  inter- 
ests of  the  largest  city  in  the  state  of  Maine.  It  has  been 
made  up  of  a  majority  of  the  citizens  of  Portland  having  the 
largest  business  interest.  In  looking  over  its  history  and 
noting  the  objects  accomplished,  it  may  be  stated  that  the 
organization  has  been  the  most  important  factor  in  the 
growth  and  development  of  the  city.  It  has  nearly  700 
members." 

Bangor:  "  The  Bangor  Board  of  Trade  was  organized  hi 
1872,  and  received  a  charter  from  the  legislature  the  follow- 
ing year.  A  new  charter,  under  the  general  laws  of  the  State, 
was  granted  in  1878.  It  has  been  a  vital  factor  in  the  com- 
mercial life  of  Bangor  and  of  the  State.  Its  work,  judging 
from  a  printed  summary,  appears  to  have  been  more  in  the 
line  of  protection  against  unwise  legislation  and  business 
projects  than  as  a  constructive  industrial  force,  though  it 
has  done  some  excellent  work  in  that  line." 

Augusta:  "  The  Augusta  Board  of  Trade  was  incorporated 
January  22,  1906,  and  has  a  membership  of  about  275  busi- 

[  357] 


ness  and  professional  men,  with  regular  monthly  meetings 
and  an  annual  meeting  with  banquet,  which  is  always  an  im- 
portant occasion.  The  Board  is  the  working  force  in  indus- 
trial matters  in  its  city,  and  represents  the  organized  effort 
of  the  business  men  to  do  something  for  the  city.  The  Board 
has  done  good  service  in  the  way  of  securing  and  retaining 
manufacturing  enterprises." 


-• 


A  NEW  ENGLAND  HIGH  SCHOOL 


Gardiner:  "  The  Gardiner  Board  of  Trade  was  organized 
in  1887,  with  a  membership  of  56.  Its  purpose  is  to  retain 
and  promote  the  industrial  welfare  of  the  city  of  Gardiner. 
Its  plan  of  work  has  mostly  been  along  the  shoe  line.  Re- 
sources $75,000 ;  we  estimate  this  amount  on  an  outlay  of 
$110,000  since  1892,  the  year  the  Board  was  incorporated. 
The  membership  is  210.  The  object  is  to  interest  manufac- 
turing that  can  use  between  eight  and  ten  thousand  horse- 
power. Our  success  has  been  very  gratifying  to  us  in  what 

•     [  358  1 


Civic  Work  in  New  England 

we  have  accomplished.  City  and  business  men  have  heartily 
supported  the  Board." 

In  New  Hampshire  there  are  several  live  boards  of  trade. 
One  was  organized  at  Concord  in  1889,  which  has  not  been 
especially  effective.  It  has  150  members.  Claremont  has  a  live 
Board  of  Trade  with  150  members,  organized  in  1908,  which 
has  done  very  effective  work  for  "  the  largest  town  in  New 
Hampshire."  Rochester  organized  a  Board  of  Trade  in  1908, 
with  194  members,  and  at  the  end  of  that  year  there  were 
234  members.  Several  improvements  have  been  effected  in  the 
town,  and  new  industries  have  been  secured.  In  Portsmouth 
there  is  a  Board  of  Trade  and  Merchants  Exchange,  an 
amalgamation  effected  in  1909,  with  150  members.  In  Little- 
ton there  is  the  White  Mountain  Board  of  Trade,  "  devoted 
to  '  the  Alps  of  America.'  "  Some  fifteen  towns  located  in  the 
White  Mountain  region  are  interested. 

In  Vermont  there  are  several  boards  of  trade  that  are  en- 
terprising and  successful.  At  St.  Albans  one  was  organized 
in  1908,  at  Barre  and  Montpelier  in  1909,  and  a  commercial 
club  at  St.  Johnsbury  in  1910.  Each  of  these  organizations 
has  accomplished  definite  results. 

Rhode  Island  has  boards  of  trade  in  Providence,  Paw- 
tucket,  Woonsocket,  and  Westerly,  all  of  which  are  doing 
good  work ;  and  there  is  a  League  of  Improvement  Societies, 
which  includes  some  thirty  societies,  and  has  been  influential 
in  what  is  known  as  village  improvement  work. 

In  Connecticut  the  New  Haven  Chamber  of  Commerce  is 
the  oldest  institution  of  its  kind,  as  it  probably  is  the  oldest 
in  the  country.  But  mere  age  does  not  count  for  much,  since 
though  this  board  was  organized  in  1794  it  was  not  active  in 
the  present  day  sense  until  1909,  when  it  was  reorganized, 
and  now  has  1162  members.  Its  first  active  year  was  produc- 
tive of  good  results  for  the  city,  and  the  Chamber  is  now 
working  for  a  new  post  office,  power  buildings  for  small 
manufacturers,  a  trade  school,  school  playgrounds,  an  ar- 
mory, a  new  railroad  station,  several  street  extensions,  a 
harbor  lighthouse,  and  other  public  improvements. 

Hartford:  "  The  Hartford  Board  of  Trade  was  organized 

[  359  1 


New  England 

in  1888,  to  promote  the  trade,  manufactures,  and  commercial 
enterprises  of  the  city ;  to  encourage  intercourse  between 
business  men ;  to  improve  facilities  for  travel  and  transporta- 
tion, and  to  achieve  in  every  legitimate  way  the  growth  and 
welfare  of  the  community.  It  has  a  membership  of  400,  and 
besides  the  income  derived  from  fees  it  has  a  substantial 
sum  invested  in  first-class  securities.  The  organization  has 
been  very  successful  in  inducing  new  industries  to  locate  in 
Hartford." 

Waterbury:  "  The  Waterbury  Business  Men's  Associa- 
tion was  organized  in  1904,  being  the  successor  of  the  volun- 
tary association  known  as  the  Waterbury  Business  Men's  As- 
sociation, and  its  predecessor,  the  Merchants  Association.  It 
has  a  membership  of  250,  and  includes  professional  men  and 
manufacturers  as  well  as  merchants.  The  association  was  or- 
ganized for  the  purpose  of  forwarding  the  business  interests 
of  Waterbury,  to  work  for  the  advancement  and  elevation  of 
all  business  dealings,  to  create  and  foster  a  fraternal  feeling 
among  the  business  men,"  etc. 

Meriden:  "  The  Meriden  Business  Men's  Association  and 
the  Meriden  Board  of  Trade  were  consolidated  in  1908  and 
are  certainly  doing  a  great  work.  It  has  come  to  pass  that  we 
can  get  almost  anything  we  ask  for  from  the  city,  and  espe- 
cially is  this  true  from  the  big  railroad  corporation  whose 
line  passes  through  our  city.  Almost  every  request  we  have 
made  for  the  past  ten  years  has  been  complied  with.  Our  as- 
sociation was  formed  May  9,  1899,  with  seventeen  members, 
and  we  now  have  a  membership  of  233." 

Putnam:  "The  Putnam  Business  Men's  Association  was 
organized  in  1908  with  a  membership  of  nearly  one  hundred. 
Two  preceding  organizations,  a  Business  Men's  Association 
and  a  Board  of  Trade,  had  lapsed  into  inactivity,  and  it  was 
deemed  wise  to  organize  an  entirely  new  association.  The 
present  association  holds  its  meetings  quarterly,  at  which 
time  questions  of  practical  interest  to  the  city  are  discussed, 
often  by  speakers  of  ability  from  outside." 


360 


An  Expert's  Estimate 

IN  Baltimore  there  is  published  a  journal  called  The  Manu- 
facturers' Record,  which  is  devoted  to  the  manufacturing  in- 
terests of  the  South.  It  is  edited  in  a  very  able  and  wise  manner 
by  Mr.  Richard  H.  Edmonds.  This  editor  is  probably  the  best 
informed  man  with  respect  to  the  South,  and  no  section  ever  had 
a  more  able  and  single-hearted  advocate.  Mr.  Edmonds  visits 
the  other  sections  of  the  country  to  correct  his  point  of  view 
and  to  cultivate  nationalism.  He  spent  a  portion  of  the  sum- 
mer of  1910  in  New  England,  and  wrote  letters  to  his  paper 
describing  what  he  saw  and  recording  his  conclusions.  From 
these  letters  we  are  permitted  to  quote  some  paragraphs,  stat- 
ing his  estimate  of  New  England  by  a  practiced  observer  whose 
interests  and  heart  are  for  a  section  which  some  people  are  so 
narrow  as  to  consider  our  rival  in  one  great  line  of  manufac- 
turing. Our  most  enthusiastic  favorite  son  could  scarcely  be 
expected  to  entertain  a  more  just  and  sane  view  of  New  Eng- 
land than  is  here  expressed. 

"  A  story  often  told,  but  worth  repeating,  is  that  at  some 
convention  there  was  a  roll  call  of  states  and  the  delegate  from 
each  was  asked  to  tell  of  the  chief  productions  and  advantages 
of  his  State.  The  delegate  from  California  told  how  small  were 
the  riches  of  the  gold  mines  of  his  State  as  compared  with  the 
riches  of  its  soil.  Before  your  enraptured  vision,  as  he  painted 
the  picture,  you  saw  appear  the  vineyards  and  the  orange 
groves  of  that  fair  land.  Colorado  came,  with  its  story  of  won- 
derful scenery,  of  glorious  climate  and  of  rugged  mountains 
bursting  with  untold  mineral  wealth.  The  delegate  from  the 
Dakotas  told  of  the  waving  wheat  fields  stretching  for  mile 
after  mile,  and  with  an  abundant  harvest  making  glad  the 
heart  of  the  farmer.  In  the  long  list  of  states,  until  Massacjm- 

[  361  1 


New  England 

setts  was  reached,  each  had  claimed  a  rare  combination  of  nat- 
ural resources  and  advantages.  The  speaker  from  that  State 
said: 

"  '  With  great  pleasure  have  I  heard  of  the  grain  fields  of  the 
West,  of  the  far  Pacific  coast  land  that  flows  with  milk  and 
honey,  of  the  iron  and  coal  of  Pennsylvania.  As  I  have  heard 
the  story  of  how  upon  the  South  nature  has  poured  with  a 
lavish  hand  every  blessing  of  climate  and  soil  and  timber  and 
mineral  wealth  I  have  marveled  at  its  potentialities.  Then,  as 
I  have  thought  of  my  own  state,  I  have  contrasted  the  barren- 
ness of  its  natural  resources  with  the  wealth  of  which  you  have 
boasted,  and  I  have  been  forced  to  say  that  of  these  heaven- 
given  advantages  Massachusetts  has  none.  We  boast  of  no 
natural  resources.  We  can  only  boast  of  what  we  have  been 
able  to  do  through  the  utilization  of  the  brains  and  energy 
of  our  people.  Instead  of  grain  fields  at  home,  we  draw  our 
foodstuffs  from  the  West.  Instead  of  cotton  plantations  at 
home,  we  feed  the  spindles  of  our  mills  with  the  product  of 
the  South,  and  even  send  unto  far-away  Egypt  for  some  of 
the  cotton  for  our  finer  products.  Instead  of  iron  mines  and 
coal  mines  at  home,  we  look  to  Alabama  and  Pennsylvania 
for  iron  and  steel,  and  to  the  Virginias  and  Maryland  for 
the  coal  which  runs  the  machinery  of  our  factories.  Gathering 
from  the  world  these  materials,  we  have  touched  them  with 
the  magic  wand  of  energy,  of  trained  brain  and  hand,  and 
they  have  poured  out  for  us  a  flood  of  gold  and  given  us  an 
industrial  development  which  has  made  Massachusetts  one 
of  the  wonders  of  the  business  world.' 

"  When  we  remember  that  on  this  little  bit  of  rock-bound 
soil,  using  the  materials  drawn  from  other  sections  and  other 
lands,  Massachusetts  has  built  a  business  structure  so  solid, 
so  vast  and  all-comprehensive  that  with  3,000,000  popula- 
tion it  is  turning  out  manufactured  products  equal  to  60  per- 
cent as  much  as  the  14  southern  states,  and  that  its  working 
people  have  out  of  their  accumulated  earnings  put  in  the  sav- 
ings banks  of  Boston  and  neighboring  cities  over  $700,000,- 
000,  or  only  about  $200,000,000  less  than  the  total  national 
banking  capital  of  the  United  States,  we  may  well  ask  our- 

[  362  ] 


An  Expert's  Estimate 

selves  if  the  delegate  from  Massachusetts  was  not  justified  in 
boasting  of  the  power  of  brains  and  energy. 

"  Some  months  ago  a  business  man  in  the  South,  filled  with 
enthusiasm  about  the  progress  around  him,  and  not  familiar 
with  what  New  England  is  doing,  said  to  me  in  all  serious- 
ness :  '  We  have  beaten  New  England  to  a  standstill.'  He 
thought  that  the  building  of  cotton  mills  in  the  South  had 
practically  stopped  the  building  of  mills  in  New  England. 
He  thought  this  section  was  stagnating,  living  upon  the  past, 
while  to  him  the  South  seemed  pulsating  with  the  thrill  of 
life.  He  thought  his  own  region  was  growing  as  no  other  land 
had  grown,  and  that  New  England  was  decaying.  He  is  a 
type  of  thousands  of  men  throughout  the  South.  Ask  any  ten 
southern  men  you  find  who  are  not  themselves  cotton  manu- 
facturers about  the  growth  of  the  cotton-mill  industry  in  the 
country,  and  probably  nine  out  of  ten  will  tell  you  that  the 
South  is  developing  its  textile  industry  very  rapidly  at  the 
expense  of  New  England,  and  that  the  latter  long  ago  reached 
the  limit  of  its  cotton-mill  possibilities.  Believing  that,  these 
men  are  satisfied  with  what  the  South  is  doing.  If  they  could 
be  brought  to  New  England  their  amazement  would  know  no 
bounds.  Here  they  would  find  a  region  that  is  indeed  pulsing 
with  the  thrill  of  life.  Here  they  would  find  a  degree  of  pros- 
perity and  wealth  which  they  could  scarcely  comprehend. 

"  Massachusetts  has  3,000,000  population,  but  it  has 
$728,000,000  in  its  savings  banks,  or  an  average  of  nearly 
$250  represented  in  this  form  of  savings  for  every  man,  wo- 
man and  child  in  the  State.  In  this  State  there  are  over  2,000,- 
000  savings  bank  deposit  accounts.  The  South,  with  28,000,- 
000  population,  has  only  $166,000,000  in  its  savings  banks, 
and  of  that  amount  $81,000,000  is  in  Baltimore.  Even  includ- 
ing Baltimore,  the  South  has  less  than  $6  per  capita  in  its 
savings  banks,  against  nearly  $250  per  capita  in  Massachu- 
setts. Omitting  the  state  of  Maryland,  the  South  has  only 
about  $3  per  capita  in  savings  banks.  Massachusetts  has 
eighty  times  as  much  per  capita,  or,  in  other  words,  for  every 
dollar  per  capita  the  South  outside  of  Maryland  has  in  sav- 
ings banks,  Massachusetts  has  about  $80. 

[  363  ] 


New  England 

"  This  disproportion  in  the  tangible  wealth  represented  by 
savings  bank  deposits  is  only  indicative  of  the  vast  difference 
in  the  industrial  progress  and  the  general  wealth  of  Massa- 
chusetts, and,  for  that  matter,  of  New  England,  as  com- 
pared with  the  South.  A  study  of  these  facts  is  of  profound 
interest. 

"  Turning  from  savings  banks  to  manufacturing  interests, 
it  is  found  that  at  the  end  of  1904,  the  latest  date  of  govern- 
mental figures  giving  the  manufacturing  statistics  of  New 
England,  Massachusetts  had  invested  in  manufacturing  enter- 
prises, $965,948,887.  The  South,  with  more  than  eight  times 
as  many  people,  with  one  hundred  times  as  much  land  area, 
with  a  thousand  times  mfcre  natural  resources,  had  only 
$1,597,636,872  capital  invested  in  manufacturing. 

"  New  England  as  a  whole  had  $1,870,995,405  manufac- 
turing capital,  or  nearly  $300,000,000  more  than  the  South, 
Maryland  to  Texas  included,  though  the  South  has  thirteen 
times  the  area  of  New  England  and  more  than  four  times  its 
population.  The  value  of  the  manufactured  products  of  New 
England  in  1904  was  $2,025,998,438,  while  that  of  the  South 
was  $1,787,926,325. 

"  But  some  may  say  that  these  figures  are  five  or  six  years 
old,  and  that  during  that  time  the  South  has  made  very  great 
material  development.  That  is  true.  The  capital  invested  in 
manufacturing  in  the  South  has  grown  from  $1,500,000,000 
in  1904  to  over  $2,200,000,000  at  present,  and  the  value 
of  manufactured  products  from  $1,787,000,000  to  over 
$2,700,000,000.  This  is  a  marvelous  increase,  worthy  to  be 
commended. 

"  But  what  has  Massachusetts  been  doing  in  the  meantime  ? 
Has  New  England  been  beaten  to  a  standstill,  as  my  south- 
ern friend  thought?  Instead  of  being  beaten  to  a  standstill, 
New  England  has  within  the  last  few  years  awakened  to 
greater  activity  in  industrial  development,  in  the  improve- 
ment of  its  railroads,  in  city  building  operations,  and  in 
everything  that  makes  for  material  progress,  than  at  any 
time  for  a  quarter  of  a  century.  Some  ten  or  twelve  years  ago 
pessimism  for  awhile  ruled  in  New  England.  The  cotton  man- 

[  364  ] 


An  Expert's  Estimate 

ufacturers  of  this  section  had  not  kept  pace  with  the  improve- 
ment in  machinery.  A  great  deal  of  antiquated  machinery  was 
in  use,  while  the  mills  of  the  South,  being  entirely  new,  were 
being  equipped  with  the  latest  and  most  up-to-date  ma- 
chinery. This  difference  gave  the  South  a  great  advantage  at 
that  time.  The  press  of  this  section  and  public  men  here  talked 
of  New  England  as  though  it  were  indeed  decadent,  as  though 
its  cotton-mill  industry  was  doomed  to  destruction  through 
the  competition  of  southern  cotton  mills.  Many  southern  peo- 
ple in  their  enthusiasm  accepted  these  discussions  as  indica- 
ting the  real  condition  of  New  England  and  drew  therefrom 
the  inference  that  New  England  had  given  up  the  fight;  that 
the  South  had  won  the  victory. 

"  New  England  beaten  to  a  standstill  ?  My  friend  did  not 
know  that  at  the  very  moment  when  he  was  speaking  New 
England  was  putting  $75,000,000  of  new  money  into  the 
building  of  textile  industries,  while  the  South  felt,  and  justly 
so,  that  it  was  doing  great  things  because  it  was  spending 
$25,000,000  in  building  new  cotton  mills.  New  England  beaten 
to  a  standstill?  I  only  wish  that  the  South  could  be  beaten  to 
the  same  kind  of  a  standstill.  Wherever  one  turns  from  the 
moment  he  enters  New  England  he  sees  on  every  hand  the 
evidences  of  increasing  wealth.  He  sees  the  power  of  energy 
combined  with  almost  limitless  wealth  made  by  the  same  en- 
ergy. It  is  the  human  agency  without  raw  materials,  but  the 
human  agency  developed  to  the  highest  type,  determined  to 
win  material  success  regardless  of  a  lack  of  advantages.  It 
has  indeed  gathered  its  raw  materials  of  manufacture  from  the 
four  quarters  of  the  globe  and  touched  them  with  the  magic 
wand  of  energy,  of  trained  brain  and  brawn,  and  from  this 
touch  there  is  pouring  out  a  stream  of  wealth  so  vast  in  its 
proportions  as  to  justify  the  boast  of  the  delegate  from 
Massachusetts. 

"  The  savings  bank  depositors  of  New  England,  made  up 
mainly  of  the  poorer  classes  or  working  people,  as  distin- 
guished from  the  capitalists,  have  to  their  credit  enough 
money  to  buy  at  par  the  capital  stock  of  all  the  national 
banks  of  the  United  States  and  still  have  a  balance  on  hand 

[  365  1 


An  Expert's  Estimate 

twice  as  great  as  the  savings  bank  deposits  of  the  whole 
South,  Maryland  included. 

"  In  New  England  the  habit  of  thrift  and  economy,  long 
developed  through  generation  after  generation,  has  resulted 
in  an  accumulation  in  savings  banks  to  the  extent  of  over 
$1,250,000,000,  whereas  the  aggregate  national  banking 
capital  of  the  United  States  is  less  than  $1,000,000,000.  The 
vast  sums  deposited  in  savings  banks  in  this  section,  in  which 
Massachusetts  and  Connecticut  lead,  do  not,  however,  by  any 
means  represent  a  tendency  on  the  part  of  the  people  to  de- 
posit all  of  their  savings  in  this  way,  for  investments  in  local 
financial  and  manufacturing  institutions,  as  well  as  in  rail- 
road and  industrial  enterprises  throughout  the  country,  run 
far  up  into  the  billions,  much  of  it  made  up  by  small 
investors. 

"  New  England  early  learned  the  value  of  massing  its  own 
capital  through  savings  banks,  the  deposits  in  which  have 
proved  a  very  powerful  factor  in  furnishing  the  capital 
needed  for  industrial  development.  It  at  the  same  time  learned 
the  value  of  insurance  companies  in  gathering  premiums  from 
hundreds  of  thousands  of  insured,  both  fire  and  life,  and 
drawing  to  that  section  the  millions  thus  accumulated,  all  of 
which  necessarily  adds  to  the  financial  strength  of  the  com- 
munity and  increases  the  financial  power  of  this  section. 
Springfield  and  Hartford  are  striking  illustrations  of  the  pos- 
sibilities of  well-managed  insurance  companies,  both  life  and 
fire,  in  the  development  of  vast  financial  resources  in  what 
may  be  called  the  smaller  cities,  where  large  financial  opera- 
tions are  not  usually  looked  for.  The  deposits  in  the  savings 
banks  of  this  section  have  been  a  great  help  in  financing  its 
industrial  growth.  So  vast  a  sum  gives  to  New  England  the 
command  of  what  may  be  called  almost  limitless  capital  for 
safe  and  conservative  investments  and  loans.  The  ramifica- 
tions of  the  influence  of  the  savings  banks  are  widespread. 
They  touch  every  phase  of  business  life.  Here  is  a  sum  avail- 
able for  investment  in  gilt-edge  securities,  for  loans  on  real 
estate,  and  for  much  of  the  financing  which  can  be  safely  done 
with  savings  bank  deposits,  greater  by  30  percent,  than  the 

f  367  1 


New  England 

aggregate  of  the  capital  of  all  the  national  banks  in  the 
country. 

"  It  is  a  noticeable  fact  that  the  foreigners  coming  into  New 
England  either  bring  with  them,  or  else  promptly  learn  from 
their  surroundings,  the  value  of  thrift  and  savings.  Many  of 
these  foreigners  no  sooner  land  and  secure  work  than  they  be- 
come depositors  in  savings  banks.  They  do  not  at  first  venture 
their  savings  into  business  enterprises  or  into  the  purchase 
of  land,  but  almost  from  the  day  their  employment  begins 
they  become  money-savers.  Some  of  the  money  thus  accumu- 
lated is  sent  home  to  take  care  of  the  people  there  until  those 
who  have  come  to  spy  out  the  land  find  that  it  is  a  goodly 
country  and  a  safe  place  in  which  to  locate  permanently. 
Then  they  bring  their  families  from  abroad,  and,  once  settled 
here,  they  branch  out  beyond  deposits  in  savings  banks  and 
become  land  buyers.  Many  of  the  foreigners  who  are  doing  a 
large  part  of  the  industrial  work  of  New  England  are  becom- 
ing landowners.  Some  of  them  are  buying  farms  on  which 
Americans  had  failed  to  make  a  living ;  some  are  buying  what 
might  be  called  abandoned  farms,  or  what  to  an  American 
looked  like  a  dreary  waste,  a  hopeless  bit  of  land,  and  by  hard 
plodding  work  they  are  making  more  than  a  living.  These 
land-buying  foreigners,  coming,  as  many  of  them  do,  from 
the  northern  part  of  Italy,  where  farming  methods  are  of 
the  best,  and  where  the  people  are  entirely  unlike  those  of 
southern  Italy,  are  proving  that  land  on  which  an  American 
would  starve  is  capable  under  their  system  of  work  and  care 
of  supplying  many  of  the  fruits  and  vegetables  for  the  markets 
of  New  England,  to  their  own  profit  as  well  as  to  the  advance- 
ment of  the  State.  Thus  the  habits  of  thrift  and  saving,  long 
credited  to  New  England,  are  not  to  be  lost  to  this  section 
by  the  incoming  of  foreigners,  but,  on  the  contrary,  these 
people  are  either  bringing  with  them  or  imbibing  New  Eng- 
land's spirit,  and  in  some  respects  surpassing  the  New  Eng- 
lander  himself  in  the  things  which  have  made  Yankee  thrift 
known  the  world  over. 

"  The  savings  banks  of  New  England  are  not  so  much  due 
to  the  thrift  of  the  people  as  the  thrift  of  the  people  is  due 

f  368  1 


An  Expert's  Estimate 

to  the  existence  and  the  influence  of  savings  banks.  These  in- 
stitutions, founded  in  early  days  by  men  who  recognized  the 
value  of  accumulating  the  pennies  and  the  dimes  and  the  dol- 
lars of  the  people,  developed  everywhere  the  feeling  that 
everybody  must  have  a  savings  bank  deposit,  the  lack  of  which 
in  New  England  is  almost  everywhere  accepted  as  an  evidence 
of  thriftlessness.  No  sooner  is  a  child  born  than  a  savings 
bank  account  is  opened  to  its  credit.  Every  baby  born  in  New 
England  is  a  potential  savings  bank  depositor.  The  amount 
deposited  weekly  or  monthly  may  be  small,  but  it  is  the  aggre- 
gate of  these  small  amounts  that  makes  the  sum  total.  Massa- 
chusetts, with  2,000,000  savings  bank  accounts  to  a  total  popu- 
lation of  3,000,000,  illustrates  the  universality  of  the  custom 
of  opening  a  savings  account.  Out  of  every  three  people  — 
men,  women  and  children,  paupers,  idiots  and  drunkards  — 
there  is  an  average  of  two  savings  bank  deposits  to  their  credit. 
"  To  this  habit  of  saving  must  be  attributed  very  much  of 
the  wealth  of  this  section.  It  is  true  that  the  vast  manufac- 
turing interests  of  New  England  as  a  whole  have  proven 
enormously  profitable.  It  is  true  that  this  section,  through  its 
operations  in  the  development  of  the  copper  interests  of  the 
country,  has  made  many  millions;  in  fact,  some  hundreds  of 
millions  through  copper  alone.  It  is  true  that  Boston  capital, 
which  has  gone  out  into  the  West  and  the  Southwest,  into 
Mexico,  and  to  some  extent  into  the  South,  seeking  adventure 
and  profit,  has  been  constantly  coming  home  loaded  with  the 
accumulated  profits  of  wise  investments.  New  England,  like 
England  and  France,  draws  a  great  income  from  its  invest- 
ments outside  of  its  own  borders,  but  New  England  would 
never  have  been  able  to  build  its  vast  manufacturing  enter- 
prises nor  to  engage  upon  so  large  a  scale  in  the  development 
of  mining  operations  and  in  the  building  of  railroads  else- 
where if  savings  banks  had  not  been  in  existence.  In  the  entire 
South,  Maryland  to  Texas,  the  aggregate  of  individual  de- 
posits in  national  banks  is  $660,000,000,  just  a  little  more 
than  half  as  much  as  is  on  deposit  in  the  savings  banks  of  this 
section.  If  over  night  the  individual  deposits  in  the  national 
banks  of  the  South  could  be  doubled,  how  great  would  be  the 

[  369  ] 


New  England 

influence  for  the  expansion  of  every  business  interest,  and  yet 
the  aggregate  then  would  be  but  a  fraction  more  than  what 
today  is  available  in  New  England  savings  banks. 

"  The  thing  which  appeals  to  the  tens  of  thousands  of 
tourists  who  crowd  this  section  in  motor  cars  is  the  splendid 
roads.  New  England  has  learned  the  art  of  road-building. 
Many  of  its  roads  are  well-nigh  perfect.  They  were  well  built 
at  the  start,  and  now  they  are  well  maintained.  The  lover  of 
outdoor  life  finds  the  exhilaration  of  a  motor  car  trip  over 
these  wonderful  highways  a  rare  treat.  New  England  recog- 
nizes the  great  value  of  its  summer  tourist  business  as  a  fac- 
tor in  its  prosperity.  The  $60,000,000  or  more  spent  by  the 
visitors  to  this  section  during  the  two  or  three  summer  months 
stimulates  every  business  interest.  Partly  by  reason  of  this 
fact,  state  and  city  officials  throughout  New  England  fully 
appreciate  the  importance  of  making  this  section  so  attractive 
as  to  command  an  ever-increasing  tourist  travel.  Many  of 
these  roads  have  been  constructed  under  the  direction  of  the 
best  engineering  skill,  and  are  maintained  in  perfect  condi- 
tion by  constant  care  and  attention.  Notwithstanding  the  ex- 
tension in  road-building  and  the  ever-increasing  use  of  the 
roads  by  automobiles,  it  is  an  interesting  fact,  which  has 
lately  attracted  attention,  that  the  cost  of  maintenance  of 
roads  in  Massachusetts  was  much  less  last  year  than  five  or 
six  years  ago,  when  the  automobile  was  something  of  a  rarity. 
There  are  in  this  section  a  few  main  leading  highways  over  which 
one  can  travel  from  New  York  to  Portland,  to  the  White  moun- 
tains and  around  by  the  Berkshire  Hills  and  scarcely  ever  strike 
a  bad  piece  of  road.  From  these  main  highways  many  fine  roads 
lead  in  different  directions,  while  other  roads  not  up  to  date  or 
modern  in  any  respect  can  still  be  found  where  the  limited 
travel  has  not  yet  brought  about  modern  road  improvements. 
The  fact,  however,  that  for  hundreds  of  miles  one  may  ride 
over  roads  almost  as  perfect  as  the  best-laid  city  street  abso- 
lutely free  from  dust,  naturally  appeals  mightily  to  every  lover 
of  good  roads,  of  outdoor  life  and  of  the  automobile. 

"  In  studying  the  question  of  roads  and  the  tourist  busi- 
ness it  should  be  borne  in  mind  that  good  highways  are  not 

[  370  ] 


An  Expert's  Estimate 

built  simply  for  the  pleasure  of  the  tourist,  as  important  as 
that  is  to  the  country.  Primarily  they  are  one  of  the  most 
important  factors  in  the  economic  development  of  any  region. 
There  are  places  in  New  England,  such,  for  instance,  as  the 
twenty  or  twenty-five  mile  road  from  Hartford  to  Springfield, 
where  a  road  almost  as  perfect  as  can  be  built  is  lined  on  each 
side  with  comfortable  farmhouses,  every  house  in  hailing  dis- 
tance of  a  neighbor,  where  well-painted  dwellings  and  perfect 
yards  create  the  impression  of  an  ideal  agricultural  condition 
hardly  to  be  duplicated  elsewhere.  The  farmers  along  this 
road  are  never  shut  out  from  companionship,  nor  the  children 
from  school  attendance  by  bad  roads.  There  is  no  kind  of 
weather  which  could  make  these  roads  like  the  impassable, 
muddy  roads  found  in  parts  of  the  South,  as  well  as  in  many 
places  in  the  North  and  West.  Along  every  good  highway 
there  will  grow  up  flourishing  communities ;  property  will  en- 
hance in  value  by  reason  of  the  increased  profits  to  the  farmer 
due  to  the  lessened  cost  of  hauling.  In  any  well-settled  coun- 
try this  enhancement  in  value  of  land  and  the  development  of 
the  country  tributary  to  the  road  will  more  than  repay  the 
cost  of  its  construction.  The  building  of  good  roads  is  not  an 
expensive  luxury;  it  is  an  investment  which  will  return  more 
to  the  county  and  the  state  than  the  cost  of  the  work. 

"  Bad  roads  tend  steadily  to  drag  civilization  down ;  good 
roads  are  a  strong  factor  in  advancing  it.  They  help  to  in- 
crease profits  in  business  and  help  to  advance  educational  and 
religious  activities.  For  this  reason  the  development  of  the 
tourist  travel  is  of  paramount  importance.  What  the  auto- 
mobile and  the  tourist  may  be  instrumental  in  doing  in  bring- 
ing about  the  building  of  good  roads  will  from  an  economic 
standpoint  many  times  offset  to  the  country  the  entire  cost 
of  the  automobile  industry.  If  the  pessimistic  statements  of 
some  bankers  about  the  extravagance  of  the  American  people 
in  the  purchase  of  automobiles  were  true,  the  country  could 
still  afford  to  throw  away  that  much  money  if  by  throwing  it 
away  the  importance  of  good  roads  could  be  fully  impressed 
upon  the  people  of  all  sections." 

[371  ] 


Commission  Government 

IN  the  government  of  Massachusetts  there  are  many  com- 
missions, and  they  have  had  much  to  do  with  the  present  con- 
dition of  public  affairs  in  that  State.  The  other  New  England 
states  have  followed  the  example  of  Massachusetts,  but  have 
not  taken  the  same  comprehensive  view  of  the  benefits  of  com- 
missions to  regulate  their  affairs.  The  question  of  the  benefits 
to  be  derived  from  this  idea  in  government  has  not  been  defi- 
nitely settled,  even  in  Massachusetts ;  but  it  is  very  manifest 
that  that  State  is  now  in  possession  of  much  that  tends  to 
make  it  distinctive  and  desirable  which  it  would  not  have  had 
were  it  not  for  the  sundry  commissions  that  have  from  time  to 
time  been  created  by  its  lawmakers.  It  has  its  wonderful  park 
and  boulevard  systems,  its  Metropolitan  water  and  sewer 
systems,  its  state  roads,  its  railroad  regulation,  the  restraint 
in  Boston  money-spending,  the  effective  and  dignified  police 
system  of  its  capital  city,  its  gas  and  electric  light  regula- 
tion, and  some  other  admirable  things,  as  the  fruits  of  the  ten- 
dency to  put  their  faith  in  commissions  the  people  of  the 
State  have  manifested.  To  the  plain  citizen  it  looks  as  though 
these  things  are  worth  while,  and  to  the  people  of  the  country 
at  large  they  seem  to  be  worth  while.  These  commissions,  save 
the  highway,  railroad,  and  gas  and  electric  light,  operate 
within  the  area  of  the  Boston  Metropolitan  district,  and  they 
have  made  that  district  notable  the  world  over.  There  is  not  a 
parallel  to  the  Metropolitan  parks,  nor  to  the  Metropolitan 
water  and  sewer  systems,  in  America.  It  is  argued  by  some 
that  there  should  be  no  emulation  of  these  works  —  that  they 
are  against  public  policy,  extravagant,  unnecessary,  and  bur- 
densome to  the  tax-payers.  But  they  are  magnificent,  and 
it  was  the  people  who  authorized  them;  and  the  people 
would  vote  for  them  again  if  the  necessity  existed  or  the 
opportunity  arose.  They  have  made  of  Boston  and  its  im- 

[  372  ] 


Commission  Government 

mediate  suburbs  a  region  that  delights  every  good  New 
Englander. 

The  effect  of  these  great  public  improvements  cannot  be 
estimated ;  the  amount  they  add  to  the  real  valuation  of  Bos- 
ton and  New  England  cannot  be  stated.  They  are  an  asset  for 
the  city  of  Boston,  the  state  of  Massachusetts,  and  for  all  of 
New  England;  and  they  are  an  asset  for  every  resident  of 
these  states.  Whatever  they  cost,  they  have  been  cheaply  ac- 
quired. Not  only  are  they  such  an  influence  on  life  as  to  make 
a  very  distinct  element  in  good  citizenship,  in  and  of  them- 
selves, but  their  creation,  management  and  maintenance 
strongly  promote  the  best  phase  of  good  citizenship.  It  has 
come  to  be  regarded  as  one  of  the  highest  honors  the  State 
can  confer,  one  of  the  most  dignified  and  desirable  of  all  the 
services  a  man  can  give  to  the  State,  to  serve  on  the  com- 
missions every  legislature  is  certain  to  create  —  and  often 
without  pay.  Many  of  the  minor  commissions  which  serve 
continuously,  and  draw  heavily  upon  the  time  of  the  members, 
receive  no  remuneration.  Some  of  them  even  pay  their  own 
expenses. 

The  tendency  toward  commission  government  in  Massa- 
chusetts is  very  much  older  than  the  recent  vogue  of  commis- 
sion government  for  cities.  The  Railroad  Commission  is  forty- 
three  years  old,  the  Gas  Commission  twenty-seven,  the  Civil 
Service  Commission  twenty-eight,  the  Park  Commission  nine- 
teen, the  Highway  Commission  eighteen,  the  Transit  Com- 
mission sixteen,  the  Water  and  Sewerage  Board,  as  now  or- 
ganized, eleven,  the  Police  Commission  six,  and  the  Finance 
Commission  two.  The  Railroad  Commission  has  not  only 
secured  for  Massachusetts  equitable  treatment  from  the  rail- 
roads, but  has  shaped  the  national  policy  of  dealing  with  rail- 
roads to  an  appreciable  extent,  and  its  methods  have  been 
adopted,  in  some  degree,  by  many  of  the  other  states.  It  has 
not  been  an  influence  that  has  been  for  the  exclusive  benefit  of 
the  people ;  it  has  done  much  constructive  work  that  has  been 
of  the  greatest  benefit  to  the  railroads  themselves.  The  func- 
tions of  the  Railroad  Commission,  the  Gas  Commission  and 
the  Highway  Commission  are  largely  judicial.  They  are  arbi- 

[  373  ] 


New  England 

trators,  and  their  course  has  been  so  fair  and  so  based  upon 
expert  knowledge  and  full  information  that  it  is  very  seldom 
that  they  are  obliged  to  do  more  than  make  recommendations. 
A  very  significant  instance  of  this  advisory  power  being  ac- 
cepted as  of  the  force  of  a  court  decree  was  the  radical  change 
made  in  the  telephone  rates  late  in  1910  as  the  result  of  long 
and  thorough  study  and  investigation  by  the  Highway  Com- 
mission, and  solely  through  a  simple  recommendation.  The 
Telephone  company  made  no  contest,  no  protest  even.  It  ac- 
cepted the  judgment  of  the  Commission,  while  registering  its 
dissent  from  some  of  the  conclusions, ,  and  immediately  set 
about  making  the  suggested  rates  effective.  It  is  almost  im- 
possible to  conceive  that  so  revolutionary  a  change  in  the 
policy  of  a  great  corporation,  involving  its  income  and  actu- 
ally endangering  its  dividends,  could  have  been  thus  effected 
in  any  other  state;  certainly  it  could  not  have  been  brought 
about  until  the  company  had  tested  the  matter  in  all  the  avail- 
able courts  and.  exhausted  all  excuses  for  delay. 

Such  examples  of  effective  arbitration  for  the  benefit  of  the 
public  by  the  Railroad  Commission  are  numerous;  in  fact, 
such  work  forms  a  large  proportion  of  its  labors.  This  oldest 
commission,  the  Railroad  Commission,  has  wide  powers,  and 
has  some  sort  of  supervision  of  all  the  operations  of  all  the 
steam  and  electric  roads  in  Massachusetts.  The  digest  of  the 
laws  it  is  concerned  in  the  enforcement  of  forms  a  book  of  265 
pages.  A  record  of  the  accomplishments  of  this  Commission, 
for  the  benefit  of  the  people  of  Massachusetts  and  New  Eng- 
land, would  fill  several  volumes  as  large  as  this.  The  board  is 
composed  of  three  men,  and  they  are  usually  men  not  of  ex- 
traordinary ability  or  judicial  training;  and  they  are  not 
paid  salaries  large  enough  to  attract  men  with  established 
business.  Yet  they  have  been,  without  exception  I  think,  able, 
impartial  and  acute  judges,  and  have  discharged  their  ex- 
tremely arduous  and  difficult  duties  in  a  manner  to  reflect 
great  credit  upon  themselves  and  secure  for  the  people  the 
full  benefit  of  laws  enacted  to  conserve  their  rights. 

The  Highway  Commission  was  created  in  1893,  "  to  im- 
prove the  public  roads,"  and  in  1906  it  had  the  telephones 

[  374  1 


Commission  Government 

("  all  companies  engaged  in  the  transmission  of  intelligence 
by  electricity  ")  put  under  its  control.  Its  great  work  has 
been  the  building  of  the  famous  Massachusetts  state  roads, 
which  are  treated  in  another  chapter.  It  has  had  the  satisfac- 
tion of  solving  the  great  question  of  how  to  make  a  road  that 
automobiles  cannot  ruin  in  one  season,  and  of  having  its 
methods  copied  by  many  other  states.  Its  work  will  in  a  few 
years  have  resulted  in  making  all  the  chief  thoroughfares  in 
New  England  good  roads  in  truth. 

The  Boston  Rapid  Transit  Commission,  as  it  now  exists, 
was  created  by  the  legislature  by  the  act  that  created  the  Bos- 
ton Elevated  Railway  company,  and  both  were  chartered 
"  to  promote  rapid  transit  in  the  city  of  Boston  and  vicin- 
ity," and  the  powers  and  duties  of  the  commission  were  ex- 
plicitly stated  in  the  original  act,  and  have  been  enlarged  or 
modified  in  many  subsequent  acts.  The  original  rapid  transit 
commission,  created  some  years  previous  to  this,  was  em- 
powered to  deal  with  the  broad  question  of  rapid  transit  in  and 
about  Boston,  and  had  initiatory  powers.  It  did  much  good 
work,  in  the  way  of  investigation  and  recommendation.  Its  life 
was  ended  with  the  creation  of  the  present  commission,  and 
the  present  commission  was  not  given  powers  to  initiate  plans. 
Its  office  is  to  construct  subways  that  have  been  or  may  be 
specifically  authorized  by  the  legislature,  and  such  work  has 
engaged  its  attention.  Many  people  do  not  differentiate  be- 
tween the  two  commissions,  and  think  that  the  present  com- 
mission has  the  power  of  initiative,  which  seems  not  to  be  the 
fact.  It  has  certain  discretionary  powers,  but  those  powers 
are  not  considered  to  extend  so  far  as  the  origination  of  new 
projects. 

The  Metropolitan  Water  and  Sewerage  Board  was  formed 
in  1901  by  consolidating  a  former  Water  Board  and  Sewer- 
age Commission.  The  old  Water  Board  was  created  in  1895. 
In  the  following  year  the  great  Wachusett  project  was  initi- 
ated by  the  purchase  of  land,  and  in  the  spring  of  1908  the 
reservoir  was  put  into  service.  This  great  work  cost,  to  1910, 
about  $11,000,000;  the  whole  work  of  the  Commission  from 
its  formation  to  1910  has  cost  $41,044,304.64  for  water.  Of 

[  375  1 


Commission  Government 

sewers  there  are  102  miles,  of  which  the  Board  has  built  93 
miles  and  bought  nine  miles;  and  something  like  1177  miles 
of  local  sewers  have  been  connected.  Sewage  is  contributed 
from  57.37  square  miles  of  territory,  having  678,662  people 
contributing  sewage  to  the  system.  Ultimately  this  system  will 
care  for  the  sewage  from  191.37  square  miles  of  territory. 

The  Metropolitan  Park  Commission  was  created  in  1893. 
It  has  control  of  10,258.58  acres  of  parks  and  parkways  in 
thirteen  cities  and  twenty-six  towns.  The  best  known  of  these 
park  reservations  are :  Blue  Hill,  4906.43  acres ;  Middlesex 
Fells,  1898.09  acres;  Stony  Brook,  463.72  acres;  Charles 
River,  635.72  acres;  Mystic  River,  291.57  acres;  Neponset 
River,  922.05  acres.  The  parkways  have  a  total  length  of 
31.678  miles.  Most  of  this  park  land  is  wild,  and  little  effort 
is  being  made  to  improve  it.  It  is  kept  clear  of  underbrush,  and 
there  are  roads  for  driving,  and  footpaths.  There  are  two 
beaches  for  the  general  public  —  Revere  and  Nantasket.  These 
great  park  areas  form  an  unrivaled  attraction  for  the  people 
of  the  cities  in  the  district,  and  are  full  of  nature  lovers  at  all 
seasons  of  the  year.  The  Commission  is  all  the  time  working  to 
purify  the  rivers  along  the  shores  of  which  there  are  reserva- 
tions, and  in  this  is  doing  a  very  important  work.  The  park- 
ways are  a  constant  delight,  embracing  as  they  do  so  many  of 
the  most  attractive  of  the  drives  about  Boston  and  the  contigu- 
ous cities  and  towns,  and  much  care  is  exercised  to  keep  them 
in  good  condition.  They  form  a  series  of  pleasure  drives  unex- 
celled in  any  other  region  in  America. 

The  Gas  and  Electric  Light  Commissioners  have  control  of 
all  the  companies  producing  gas  and  electricity  for  light  and 
heat.  The  commission  is  twenty-seven  years  old.  It  has  had 
much  to  do  with  those  necessities  of  domestic  and  business 
life,  and  the  extraordinarily  good  conditions  that  now  prevail 
with  respect  to  them  are  to  be  in  large  measure  credited  to  it. 
When  we  contemplate  the  liberal  and  enlightened  policy,  and 
the  relative  low  prices,  of  the  company  supplying  gas  in  Bos- 
ton in  the  light  of  the  Addicks  regime,  it  really  seems  that  we 
may  contemplate  the  millennium  with  some  degree  of  assur- 
ance. This  commission  has  charge  of  the  interests  of  the 

[  377  ] 


New  England 

people  with  sixty-seven  gas  and  fifty-seven  electric  light  com- 
panies, and  twenty  persons  or  corporations  that  make  gas  or 
electricity  for  light  or  heat.  Perhaps  this  commission  has  had 
to  wage  more  than  its  share  of  the  fight  to  obtain  for  the 
commission  idea  the  recognition  it  now  enjoys,  and  to  con- 
vince corporations  that  their  interests  and  the  interests  of  the 
people  are,  in  the  long  run,  identical. 


HOME  OF  HELEN   KELLER,  WRENTHAM,   MASS. 


The  Civil  Service  Commission  of  Massachusetts  has  been 
organized  twenty-eight  years,  but  it  is  only  since  the  city  of 
Boston  adopted  its  present  charter  that  it  has  become  so  im- 
mediately connected  with  the  political  and  municipal  life  of 
the  Metropolitan  district  as  to  bring  it  sharply  to  the  front 
as  an  element  of  power  to  be  reckoned  with,  and  upon.  It  is 
now  vested  with  the  power  of  approval  of  appointments  of 
department  heads  by  the  mayor  of  Boston,  and  it  is  not  hesi- 
tating in  a  policy  of  withholding  approval  of  many  appoint- 
ments. It  is  in  this  function  brought  into  the  daily  life  of  the 
city  in  a  very  consequential  manner,  and  has  become  one  of 

f  378  1 


Commission  Government 

the  vital  elements  that  are  working  to  regenerate  the  politics 
of  the  metropolis  of  New  England. 

The  Finance  Commission  was  first  created  in  June,  1908, 
and  its  powers  under  the  act  ceased  on  the  first  day  of  Decem- 
ber the  same  year.  It  was  recreated  in  June  the  next  year  as  a 
part  of  the  machinery  of  government  provided  by  the  new 
Boston  charter,  composed  of  five  members  appointed  by  the 
governor.  Its  duties  and  powers  are :  "  To  investigate  any  and 
all  matters  relating  to  appropriations,  loans,  expenditures, 
accounts,  and  methods  of  administration  affecting  the  city  of 
Boston  or  the  county  of  Suffolk,  or  any  department  thereof, 
that  may  appear  to  the  commission  to  require  investigation, 
and  to  report  thereon  from  time  to  time  to  the  mayor,  the 
city  council,  the  governor,  or  the  general  court."  And  the 
mayor  may  refer  to  the  commission  payrolls,  bills  or  other 
claims  that  he  may  consider  of  doubtful  validity  or  excessive. 
This  commission  has  caused  much  commotion  in  political 
circles,  and  has  been  of  the  greatest  service  to  the  city.  Its 
chairman  has  a  salary,  and  the  other  members  serve  without 
pay. 

The  office  of  Police  Commissioner  was  brought  into  being 
in  1906.  He  has  control  of  the  police  of  Boston,  and  is  ap- 
pointed by  the  governor.  He  holds  office  five  years.  This  action 
was  taken  by  the  legislature  to  take  the  Boston  police  out  of 
politics. 


379 


The  New  England  States 

THE  sketches  of  the  several  New  England  states  that  follow 
were  written  by  "  favorite  sons."  They  may  be  adequate  and 
well-rounded  appreciations,  and  they  may  be  thought  to  be 
lacking  in  some  particulars.  The  editor  of  this  book  has  not 
ventured  to  edit  them.  It  was  his  plan  to  get  from  some  well  in- 
formed and  enthusiastic  son  of  each  of  the  states  an  optimistic 
and  enthusiastic  pastel,  summarizing  in  a  few  paragraphs  his 
belief  and  hope  and  appreciation.  Running  through  all  the 
other  chapters  of  this  book  is  the  industrial  story  of  all  the 
states.  Here  are  paeans  of  men  who  are  devoted  to  their  home 
states ;  and  these  appreciations  from  the  hearts  of  sons  who 
love  them  are  better  estimates  of  the  states  than  are  the  figures 
of  their  statistical  bureaus. 


MASSACHUSETTS 

"  God  Save  the  Commonwealth  of  Massachusetts,"  says  the 
Secretary  of  State  of  the  state  of  Massachusetts  upon  every 
possible  official  occasion ;  and  it  is  not  exaggeration  to  say 
that  that  sentiment  is  in  the  hearts  of  all  the  people  of  this 
great  and  greatly  distinguished  State.  Massachusetts  has 
the  most  interesting  history  among  all  the  states  of  the 
Union,  it  has  done  the  most  interesting  things  —  is  now 
doing  the  most  interesting  things ;  it  has  the  most  interest- 
ing institutions  and  the  most  interesting  people.  Massa- 
chusetts has  the  most  interesting  industries ;  and  it  has  the 
most  interesting  manner  of  disposing  of  the  income  from 
those  industries.  It  has  the  most  interesting  politics ;  and  the 
most  interesting  city  governments.  It  has  the  most  interesting 
chief  city  in  the  world.  It  is  not  so  large,  in  land  area,  as 
some  of  the  other  states  —  as  many  of  them;  its  land  is  not 

f  380  1 


The  New  England  States 

as  well  worked  as  land  is  worked  in  some  other  states.  Mas- 
sachusetts has  more  tradition  than  some  of  the  states,  and 
makes  better  use  of  it.  Tradition  keeps  Massachusetts  where 
it  stands :  "  Massachusetts  —  there  she  stands  !  "  That  is  the 
way  we  all  think  of  Massachusetts,  when  we  wish  to  think  well 
of  the  State.  We  are  not  inclined  to  do  a  great  amount  of  ex- 
plaining about  Massachusetts.  We  allow  others  to  exalt  their 
states,  knowing  full  well  that  the  eulogist  will  come  around  to 
the  singing  of  the  praises  of  Massachusetts,  sooner  or  later. 
It  seems  impertinent  for  one  to  expound  Massachusetts,  when 
all  know  all  about  it,  and  feel  almost  all  that  the  most  in- 
grained Bay  Stater  can  possibly  feel.  When  men  rail  at,  and 
about,  Massachusetts  we  know  that  down  in  their  bottommost 
hearts  there  is  a  paean  for  the  old  State  struggling  for  utter- 
ance ;  that  in  the  backs  of  their  heads  there  lie  arguments  for 
the  State  that  we  ourselves  cannot  match.  No  state  has  such 
a  hold  upon  the  imagination  of  all  the  people  of  the  country 
as  has  Massachusetts ;  none  is  so  deeply  rooted  in  their  af- 
fections. So  why  should  anything  be  said  about  Massachusetts? 

Well,  we  all  like  to  talk  about  our  people.  We  all  love  to 
speak  of  Massachusetts.  We  all  like  to  quietly  go  over  the 
things  Massachusetts  is  and  the  things  she  stands  for,  mother 
of  the  nation  that  she  is,  torch-bearer  for  Civilization  that 
she  has  always  been,  leader  among  and  of  the  states  that  she 
is,  prophet  of  the  new  order  and  apostle  of  progress  that  we 
know  her.  What  good  is  there  in  our  land  that  has  not  come  from 
Massachusetts  or  been  welcomed  and  fostered  by  Massachu- 
setts ?  Think  of  the  wealth-making  industries  that  she  has  pro- 
duced, and  the  men  that  have  sprung  from  her  towns  and 
farms !  Think  on  what  she  has  done  for  religion,  ethics,  soci- 
ology, civics,  history,  letters,  art,  science,  learning,  education ; 
think  of  what  she  has  done  for  industry,  trade,  commerce, 
manufacturing,  farming,  and  all  the  useful  and  learned  arts 
and  crafts !  And  think  of  what  she  is  now  doing  in  and  for  all 
these  lines  of  human  endeavor  and  betterment ! 

It  is  not  easy  to  indicate  that  which  constitutes  the  patent 
of  the  distinction  of  Massachusetts.  The  State  is  hospitable 
to  man,  and  when  real  men  come  to  her  she  gives  them  a  wel- 

F  381  1 


New  England 

come  in  that  coin  they  most  prize.  Massachusetts  contents  her 
people.  They  do  not  wish  to  leave  her,  and  they  seldom  do 
leave  her  of  their  free  will  and  accord.  One  learns  of  men 
from  all  other  sections  and  states  going  to  live  in  New  York, 
after  they  have  amassed  more  or  less  money  and  passed  some 
tens  of  years  in  doing  so.  But  who  from  Massachusetts  has 
gone  to  that  Gotham  for  the  pure  joy  of  living  there,  since 


TYPICAL  BOSTON   SUBURBAN   RESIDENCE 

Mr.  William  Dean  Howells's  hegira?  Men  and  women  return, 
from  spoiling  the  heathen  in  other  sections,  to  Boston  to  live 
out  their  span  of  life ;  and  it  is  when  they  come  to  Boston  that 
they  begin  to  live. 

But  Massachusetts  is  far  from  being  the  mere  Mecca  for 
the  dilletanti  and  the  resting  place  for  those  who  are  weary 
of  the  world.  It  is  the  home  of  the  virile  and  the  creative.  It 
is  here  that  industry  and  trade  are  born  and  nurtured.  Travel 
from  Boston  to  North  Adams,  and  from  Boston  to  French- 
ville,  and  from  Boston  to  Greenwich,  and  from  Boston  to 
Alburg,  and  cover  all  the  country  between  these  routes,  and 

[  382  1 


The  New  England  States 

look  over  the  land  throughout  all  New  England.  All  the 
roads  lead  to  Massachusetts.  All  the  currents  of  trade  set 
towards  Massachusetts.  All  the  men  are  thinking  of  Massa- 
chusetts, and  all  the  people  hope  to  visit  Massachusetts. 
Sum  up  all  the  industries  in  all  the  New  England  states, 
and  those  of  Massachusetts,  and  note  the  variety,  the 
value,  the  importance  of  those  of  the  Bay  State  in  com- 
parison. But  there  is  no  need  of  comparison,  no  justification 
for  it.  Massachusetts  is  not  provincial  enough  to  institute 
comparisons  with  any  of  the  sisterhood  of  states  she  is  a 
member  of.  The  Massachusetts  people  disregard  state  boun- 
daries, in  their  minds  as  well  as  in  their  acts. 

Massachusetts  has  focussed  all  her  distinctive  life  in  Bos- 
ton, making  that  city  unique  among  all  the  cities  of  the  world. 
All  Massachusetts  people  see  themselves  expressed  in  Boston. 
There  never  was  a  city  in  the  history  of  the  world  that  was  so 
truly  expressive  of  the  people  within  its  influence  as  Boston 
is  expressive  of  the  people  of  New  England.  And  it  is  expres- 
sive of  a  strong  and  consequential  strain  of  people  all  over 
the  United  States.  Especially  is  there  a  broad  and  deep  flood 
of  people  spreading  over  the  entire  northern  half  of  the  land 
who  acknowledge  the  influence  of  Boston  and  Massachusetts, 
because  their  forbears  were  of  that  Pilgrim  flood  which  crept 
over  the  land  from  Plymouth  to  San  Francisco,  leaving  set- 
tlers all  along  the  route.  There  is  no  racial  tie  in  America  so 
strong  as  this  tie  that  binds  to  the  Pilgrims ;  and  all  of  the 
Pilgrims  went  out  from  Massachusetts. 

In  this  connection,  we  are  inclined  to  leave  the  facts  of  the 
dominance  of  Massachusetts  in  learning,  art,  science,  etc., 
with  a  reference ;  and  to  attempt  in  a  sketch  like  this  to  even 
hint  at  the  industrial  prominence  of  the  State  is  almost  folly. 
That  may  well  be  left  for  the  imagination  of  the  reader.  Mas- 
sachusetts leads  the  world  in  the  manufacture  of  textiles  and 
textile  machinery,  in  shoes  and  leather,  in  tools  of  precision, 
in  wire  and  the  multifarious  products  of  wire,  and  the  manip- 
ulation of  iron  by  skilled  labor;  in  jewelry  it  divides  the  su- 
premacy with  Rhode  Island;  in  books,  toys,  small  wares, 
clothing  for  men  and  women,  watches,  saws,  cutlery,  firearms, 

f  383  1 


The  New  England  States 

automobiles  and  parts,  machine  tools,  candy,  chocolate  and 
its  products,  cordage  and  a  hundred  other  things  that  might 
be  catalogued,  Massachusetts  is  prominent. 

And  w,hen  all  these  great  and  prominent  industries  are 
passed  in  review  we  have  still  to  consider  the  real  source  and 
guaranty  of  the  industrial  greatness  of  Massachusetts.  The 
late  Edward  Atkinson  once  was  showing  some  men  about  the 
State,  and  had  been  with  them  to  see  many  big  factories  and 
institutions.  One  of  them  said  to  Mr.  Atkinson :  "  Now  we 
can  understand  why  New  England  has  grown  so  enormously 
wealthy.  We  have  seen  the  great  manufacturing  enterprises 
that  created  this  wealth." 

Mr.  Atkinson  said :  "  No,  New  England's  wealth  has  not 
been  made  out  of  what  you  saw  today.  Tomorrow  I  will  show 
you  the  real  foundation  of  its  prosperity." 

On  the  morrow  he  took  them  through  many  of  the  smaller 
towns  and  into  the  byways  and  alleys  and  narrow  streets  of 
the  larger  cities,  where  small  factories  are  employing  a  few 
men,  and  where  great  buildings  are  occupied  by  hundreds  of 
individual  concerns,  each  making  some  little  article  of  gen- 
eral use.  He  carried  them  first  through  one  place  and  then 
another,  in  which  he  showed  them  every  variety  of  manu- 
factured product,  and  returning  that  night  he  said  to 
them: 

"  It  is  not  the  great  factories  you  saw  yesterday  that  are 
responsible  for  New  England's  progress,  but  the  thousands  of 
smaller  enterprises,  in  which  the  owner  and  a  few  workmen  are 
carrying  on  diversified  industries  and  laying  the  foundations 
for  the  steady  expansion  into  the  great  factories  of  the  future. 
In  these  thousands  of  small  industries,  covering  every  range 
of  human  activity,  is  the  true  source  of  New  England's  wealth. 
From  them  come  the  geniuses  who,  make  possible  our  inven- 
tions and  improvements  in  machinery.  From  them  come  the 
leaders  capable  of  developing  their  small  plants  into  great 
enterprises.  In  them  are  found  the  true  spirit  of  New  Eng- 
land's development." 

It  is  the  serious  spirit  of  progress  which  gives  Massachu- 
setts its  peculiar  distinction  among  the  states ;  that  spirit  of 

[  385  ] 


New  England 

intelligent  receptivity  and  devoted  promotion.  This  State  is  a 
magnet  that  attracts  currents  of  progress  in  science,  religion, 
civics,  ethics,  and  particularly  in  sociology;  and  there  is  a 
large  element  of  the  people  that  seem  always  to  be  on  the  watch- 
towers  to  discover  and  welcome  and  promote  whatever  appears 
in  the  realm  of  progress.  Boston  is  one  of  the  most  serious- 


A  MASSACHUSETTS  VILLAGE  STREET 

minded  places  in  the  world,  yet  there  is  nothing  new  under  the 
sun  but  will  receive  a  welcome  and  an  exploitation  there.  Such 
is  the  nature  of  the  Boston  people.  Massachusetts  was  the 
first  state,  as  it  now  is  in  a  large  sense  the  only  one,  to  adopt 
a  policy  of  state  sociology,  in  its  park,  water,  sewer,  highway, 
railway  and  police  commissions.  These  are  sociological  in  es- 
sence and  in  practice.  The  people  of  the  State  are  strongly 
inclined  to  this  communal  idea  of  cooperation,  and  have  been 
so  inclined  from  the  very  first  landing  of  the  Pilgrims,  who 
were  always  working  out  some  scheme  of  cooperation.  The 
Massachusetts  people  are  thrifty;  and  they  are  thrifty  in  a 

[  386  ] 


The  New  England  States 

sense  unknown  in  other  sections  of  the  country.  They  save, 
whether  or  not  they  properly  live.  Think  of  707  million  dol- 
lars in  the  savings  banks  of  the  State!  Think  of  the  50  mil- 
lions in  the  cooperative  banks  !  Think  of  the  85  million  savings 
deposits  in  national  banks !  And  think  that  these  figures  rep- 
resent but  a  small  proportion  of  the  money  saved  by  the  thrifty 
people  of  Massachusetts,  the  larger  proportion  being  invested 
in  houses,  business,  bonds,  mortgages,  stocks,  land  and  many 
other  producing  avenues. 

It  may  raise  a  smile  to  say  that  Massachusetts  excels  by 
reason  of  her  climate,  but  such  is  the  fact.  Good-natured  ridi- 
cule has  so  often  been  its  lot  that  sight  has  been  lost  of  its 
economic  value.  Travel  the  world  through,  and  everywhere  you 
will  find  that  brain  and  hands  work  best  in  the  middle  ground 
between  tropic  heat  and  arctic  cold,  and  where  the  air  gives  a 
bracing  tonic  by  nearness  to  sea  or  mountain.  This  is  notably 
the  result  in  the  case  of  northern  Italy,  under  the  Alps,  in 
Switzerland  itself,  in  Norway  and  Sweden.  Recall  the  intellec- 
tual contributions  of  Scotland  to  the  renown  of  Great  Britain. 
It  seems  to  be  the  rule  that,  within  bounds,  the  easier  it 
is  to  live  the  smaller  the  contribution  of  life  to  the  world's 
progress. 

So  there  is  compensation  in  our  rocky  shores,  the  meager 
soil  of  our  hills,  the  blasts  of  winter,  the  chill  east  wind.  For 
half  the  year  men  work  the  harder  because  there  is  no  fun  in 
loafing.  During  the  other  half  they  do  not  find  activity  in- 
doors so  irksome  as  in  sunnier  lands.  This  is  the  reason  why 
New  England  has  developed  more  of  mechanical  skill  and  in- 
genuity than  any  other  part  of  the  land.  It  is  the  reason  why 
we  need  have  little  fear  of  the  rivalry  of  other  sections  in  the 
arts  calling  for  deftness,  quickness  and  the  mechanical  in- 
stinct. Indeed,  we  may  look  with  complacency  on  the  gradual 
transfer  of  our  coarser  industries  to  other  regions,  feeling 
that  the  men  they  would  have  engaged  here  are  thereby  set 
free  to  apply  themselves  to  other  occupations  of  higher  grade 
and  more  remunerative. 

Inevitably,  this  advantage  has  aroused  our  people  to  the 
importance  of  encouraging  and  developing  native  skill.  By 

[  387  ] 


THE  "MINUTE  MAN"  OF  1776 


The  New  England  States 

instinct  it  has  been  felt  that  we  ought  to  give  earnest  study  to 
ways  and  means  for  training  our  workers.  So  we  have  estab- 
lished textile  schools,  have  made  manual  training  a  part  of  the 
curriculum  of  most  of  our  high  schools,  have  been  generous  to 
our  agricultural  college,  and  through  both  public  and  pri- 
vate beneficence  have  made  our  Institute  of  Technology  take 
a  foremost  place.  Add  to  this  the  noteworthy  attention  given 
to  scientific  investigation  and  instruction  by  Harvard,  Tufts 
and  other  colleges,  and  you  will  understand  why  we  have 
achieved  a  leadership  in  the  arts  and  sciences  that  will  not  in 
our  day  be  threatened. 

It  is  in  this  matter  of  education  that  we  have  been  most 
bountifully  blessed  through  the  wisdom  and  foresight  of  our 
fathers.  Whether  or  not  we  may  claim  the  honor  of  having 
given  the  public  school  to  the  world,  sure  it  is  that  Massachu- 
setts led  in  its  important  development.  Horace  Mann,  gener- 
ally recognized  as  the  father  of  the  modern  common-school 
system,  planted  the  seed  in  Massachusetts.  Since  his  time  we 
have  wonderfully  expanded  the  system,  and  although  its  bene- 
fits have  now  been  put  within  reach  of  the  younger  children  in 
many  other  states,  we  still  lead  in  the  percentage  of  older 
pupils  getting  instruction  at  the  public  expense. 

Another  priceless  inheritance  of  Massachusetts  is  Puritan- 
ism; modified  by  modern  conditions,  to  be  sure,  but  still  a 
powerful  influence  working  for  sobriety  and  earnestness.  To 
illustrate  its  effect,  take,  for  instance,  race-track  gambling 
and  the  selling  of  pools  on  running  races.  The  magnitude  of 
the  evil  effect  of  this  sort  of  thing  on  the  working  classes  of 
England  is  well  known,  and  in  some  of  our  own  states  it  has 
become  a  menace  to  the  toilers.  Our  people  have  never  allowed 
it  to  become  a  serious  evil  here.  Indeed,  it  is  probably  safe  to 
say  that  the  gambling  instinct  —  such  a  curse  to  the  poor  of 
purse  and  weak  of  mind  —  has  by  the  force  of  custom  been 
more  repressed  in  New  England  than  almost  anywhere  else  in 
the  world. 

We  cannot  claim  such  a  degree  of  success  in  handling  that 
still  greater  affliction  of  the  toilers  —  the  drink  habit.  Our 
Puritan  forbears  did  not  look  on  the  excessive  use  of  liquor 

[  389  ] 


New  England 

as  a  grievous  fault,  and  its  economic  cost  was  not  felt  until 
the  factory  system  had  matured.  Now  that  the  cost  to  the  com- 
munity is  coming  to  be  realized  we  are  making  intelligent 
progress,  and  under  our  local-option  system  employers  can 
find  at  every  turn  communities  where  the  public  sale  of  liquor 
does  not  tempt  the  wage-earner. 

It  is  fair  also  to  call  attention  to  the  economic  aspect  of 
another  moral  problem,  the  observance  of  Sunday.  From  the 
purely  material  point  of  view  the  attitude  of  public  opinion 
in  Massachusetts  is  no  small  asset.  In  France  the  waste  of 
human  vitality  through  constant  employment  has  compelled 
legislation  for  one  day  of  rest  in  seven.  In  other  countries  and 
in  other  states  of  our  own  country  the  economic  importance  of 
maintaining  a  higher  standard  of  efficiency  by  periodic  rest  is 
coming  to  be  one  of  the  vital  questions.  With  us  it  never  has 
been  an  important  problem,  because  the  standards  of  our 
society  have  preserved  the  old  codes  of  conduct,  with  only  such 
revision  as  the  new  social  relations  compel. 

There  is  another  reason  why  we  should  be  grateful  for 
the  place  nature  has  given  us  in  which  to  work.  Its  geographi- 
cal relation  to  the  Old  World  and  the  New  gives  us  a  perma- 
nent advantage  that  no  other  locality  can  ever  threaten. 
Boston  is  the  nearest  great  port  to  the  Old  World,  and  it  is 
the  easiest  ice-free  port  to  reach  from  the  huge  areas  of  the 
Canadian  Northwest  that  within  a  few  years  will  play  such  an 
important  part  in  feeding  the  world.  The  grades  through 
Vermont  have  been  shown  to  be  the  lowest,  and  sooner  or  later 
grades  determine  land  transportation.  When  the  political 
barriers  between  us  and  Canada  are  removed,  as  they  are  sure 
to  be  in  time,  and  when  the  growth  of  commerce  compels  the 
use  of  the  through  routes  that  are  the  easiest,  Boston  is  sure 
to  reap  a  harvest. 

Meanwhile  we  are  preparing  for  the  future  by  developing 
a  high  type  of  citizenship,  steadily  learning  how  to  work  to- 
gether for  the  common  good.  The  stage  of  civilization  any 
community  has  reached  is  shown  by  its  power  of  cooperation 
in  matters  of  common  concern.  Of  late  the  civic  spirit  of  Mas- 
sachusetts has  taken  on  new  life,  has  demonstrated  new  powers 

[  390  ] 


The  New  England  States 

of  development.  The  growth  of  all  sorts  of  trade  organiza- 
tions, the  concerted  study  of  civic  problems,  the  increasing 
sense  of  self-respect,  unite  to  prove  that  we  are  marching. 

To  illustrate  by  some  of  the  forms  this  determination  to 
progress  has  already  taken,  it  may  be  cited  that  Massachu- 
setts has  led  the  land  in  the  improvement  of  her  highways,  so 
that  today  her  roadbeds  are  unequaled  anywhere  in  America 
for  the  purposes  of  commerce,  agriculture,  or  pleasure.  We 
are  annually  spending  in  systematic  fashion  hundreds  of  thou- 
sands of  dollars  for  the  protection  and  improvement  of  our 
shores  and  harbors,  and  for  the  abolition  of  the  grade  cross- 
ings of  our  railroads.  We  are  giving  the  most  earnest  atten- 
tion to  the  public  control  of  our  enemies  in  the  way  of  disease, 
making  a  gallant  fight  against  tuberculosis,  beginning  to  learn 
how  to  handle  inebriety,  stamping  out  contagion  of  all  kinds. 
With  humane  laws  relating  to  the  inspection  of  factories  and 
schools,  for  the  lessening  of  accidents  in  industrial  occupa- 
tions, for  the  regulation  of  the  work  of  women  and  children, 
we  are  so  prolonging  the  average  span  of  life  that  captains 
of  industry  find  here  a  greater  average  of  service  on  the  part 
of  their  soldiers  than  anywhere  else.  We  have  found  that  hu- 
manity is  not  inconsistent  with  profit,  and  that  philanthropy 
pays  dividends. 

Massachusetts  leads  in  these  things  not  alone  because  they 
pay,  but  because  she  believes  they  are  right.  She  invites  both 
capital  and  labor  to  come  within  her  borders,  not  alone  because 
of  the  certainty  of  gainful  use  to  excelling  advantage,  but  also 
because  of  her  promise  that  each  shall  be  ensured  tranquillity, 
comfort  and  justice. 

We  of  Massachusetts  realize  that  the  seeker  after  ideal  con- 
ditions of  life  will  go  far  to  find  so  favored  a  place;  that  he 
will  indeed  never  find  it.  The  things  that  make  for  a  full  life, 
for  a  merry  life,  for  a  useful  life,  for  an  ideal  life,  are  all 
here  in  the  old  Bay  State ;  and  the  people  are  among  the  best 
and  most  important  of  those  ideal  conditions,  for  it  is  here 
that  the  Brotherhood  of  Man  has  its  best  exemplification,  and 
here  that  a  man  counts  for  what  he  is. 

[  391  ] 


New  England 


CONNECTICUT 

For  benefits  received  that  are  almost  fundamental  in  a 
higher  civilization  the  world  owes  a  great  debt  of  gratitude 
to  the  forbears  of  Connecticut's  army  of  manufacturers.  So 
common  have  become  many  of  the  mechanical  contrivances 
first  dreamed  out  and  later  put  into  workable  form  in  Con- 
necticut, that  the  world  is  prone  to  forget,  likely  to  fail  to  ap- 
preciate, a  little  state  tucked  away  into  a  corner  of  New  Eng- 
land—  and  New  England  herself  a  mere  corner  of  this  great 
nation.  If  Sparta  fed  her  national  pride  with  the  boast  that 
her  "  chief  product  was  men,"  no  less  may  Connecticut  boast 
that  her  chief  product  has  been  a  long  line  of  men  of  inventive 
genius,  of  mechanical  ingenuity,  and  men  withal  of  farsight 
that  puts  the  stun0  of  dreams  into  something  tangible,  some- 
thing not  only  patentable  but  into  machines  that  are  almost 
uncanny  in  their  operation,  so  nearly  do  they  seem  to  think 
for  themselves.  Go  into  almost  any  of  the  great  mechanical 
and  industrial  plants  of  the  United  States,  France,  England, 
South  America,  yes,  even  Japan,  if  the  crafty  little  men  have 
not  filed  it  off,  and  you  will  find  in  innumerable  instances  that 
their  machinery  bears  a  trade-mark  showing  that  it  was  made 
in  Connecticut. 

But  why  dwell  further  on  a  point  that  needs  no  emphasis 
though  it  bears  expounding,  for,  since  it  is  so  well  known,  it 
may  be  overlooked  that  Connecticut  stands  head  and  shoulders 
over  many  more  boastful  larger  states  in  the  country,  in  the 
matter  of  industrial  leadership. 

Not  long  ago  a  Connecticut  man  was  visiting  an  industrial 
concern  in  the  Middle  West,  and  in  the  course  of  conversa- 
tion he  learned  that  the  superintendent  was  from  Connecticut, 
that  of  nine  foremen  in  charge  of  departments  seven  were  from 
Connecticut,  and  that  29  percent  of  the  mechanics  in  the  es- 
tablishment had  had  their  training  in  little  old  Connecticut. 
And  most  of  them  wished  they  were  back ! 

It  is  no  disparagement  of  any  of  her  five  sister  states  in  the 
New  England  family  to  call  Connecticut  "A  Hive  of  Indus- 

[  392  ] 


The  New  England  States 

try."  Where  in  all  the  three  thousand  miles  from  east  to  west, 
where  from  Portland  to  Miami,  can  you  find  a  state  with  so 
great  a  variety  of  products  made  by  the  hands  of  men  and 
women?  Only  an  infinitesimal  percentage  of  its  manufactured 
wares  can  be  classed  as  unnecessary  to  the  civilization  of  to- 
day. In  other  words,  Connecticut  makes  standard  goods,  not 
faddist  toys.  To  list  this  variety  of  products  would  be  tanta- 
mount to  printing  the  catalogue  of  a  mail-order  house.  Chief 
in  the  category  one  would  find  woolen  and  cotton  goods,  boots 
and  shoes,  hats  of  straw  and  felt,  corsets,  rubber  boots  and 
shoes,  soft  rubber  goods,  automobiles,  carriages,  bodies  for 
both  automobiles  and  carriages  and  the  accessories  of  both, 
belts,  buckles,  webbing,  sewing  machines  and  attachments,  di- 
rectories and  guides  for  many  cities,  paper  boxes  and  blotting 
paper,  dies,  chucks,  saws,  hardware,  special  implements,  row- 
boats  and  yachts,  bird  cages,  cut  glass  and  silver  table  ware, 
fishing  reels,  concrete  stone,  rifles,  shotguns,  cartridges,  type- 
writers, locks,  trunks,  the  rulers  that  line  the  ledgers  in  the 
counting  houses  of  the  world,  computing  machines,  wall  fab- 
rics, drop  forgings,  safes  and  strong  boxes,  prayer  books, 
pianos  and  organs,  phonographs,  spectacles,  an  ever-increasing 
line  of  special  machinery  to  make  tools  or  to  make  machines  or 
to  finish  the  parts  of  intricate  mechanism  assembled  in  a  thou- 
sand factories,  flying  machines,  pins  and  needles,  the  baser 
coins  for  South  American  countries,  copper  wire  for  tele- 
graph, telephone  and  electric  light.  These  and  many  more 
things  are  made  in  the  neighborlike  factories  of  Connecticut 
cities  with  just  about  as  great  disregard  of  co-relation  in  use 
as  they  are  jumbled  in  the  list  above  capitulated  —  a  striking 
evidence  that  Connecticut  genius  is  boundless  in  versatility. 

This  being  true,  it  is  not  amazing  though  it  may  amuse  to 
relate  that  a  well-known  manufacturer  of  New  Haven  not  long 
ago  returned  from  Vienna  bringing  with  him  (and  paying 
Uncle  Sam  duty  upon  it)  a  dainty  little  clock  which  he  had 
bought  in  the  Austrian  capital  as  a  souvenir  of  a  pleasant 
visit  there,  and,  as  he  thought,  typical  of  its  handicraft.  While 
he  was  entertaining  friends  who  called  to  welcome  him  home 
he  showed  with  pride  this  specimen  of  his  taste  and  discrimi- 

[  393  ] 


New  England 

nating  selection  in  foreign  purchases.  To  his  chagrin,  one  of 
his  friends,  with  keener  eye  than  the  traveler,  pointed  out  to 
him,  stamped  on  the  inside  of  the  clock,  the  trade-mark  of  the 
New  Haven  Clock  company !  Perhaps  it  is  true  that  some  of 
the  scarabs  which  the  sheiks  along  the  Nile  sell  as  "  stolen 
from  the  tombs  of  the  Ptolemies  "  were  fashioned  out  of  Con- 
necticut trap  rock ! 

Come  down,  if  you  will,  from  Boston  in  your  automobile 
and  tour  the  counties  of  Windham,  Tolland  and  New  London, 
and  count,  wherever  there  is  fall  of  water  enough  to  generate 
power,  mill  after  mill  where  textiles  are  woven ;  or  go  even  into 
Willimantic  and  supply  your  community  with  thread.  Where 
you  do  not  find  mills  you  will  find  dairy  cattle  upon  a  thou- 
sand hills,  whose  givings  supply  eastern  cities  with  milk,  but- 
ter and  cheese.  Continue  through  Hartford  county  and  note 
thousands  of  acres  under  cultivation  to  supply  lovers  of  the 
Havana  weed  with  the  delicate  and  high-priced  Connecticut 
wrapper  leaf.  In  Hartford  county  note  the  smoking  stacks  of 
the  silk  mills  of  South  Manchester ;  or  the  machine  shops,  the 
bicycle,  the  typewriter  and  automobile  factories  of  the  capital 
city;  of  if  you  journey  through  New  Britain  or  Bristol,  see 
the  great  concerns  that  make  household  hardware,  automo- 
biles and  brass  goo^s.  Turn  down  through  Middlesex  county, 
and  in  town  and  hamlet  note  the  manufacturers  of  pumps  and 
other  hydraulic  machinery,  cutlery,  sheet  metal  goods  and 
enameled  ware,  novelties  in  bone  and  ivory,  plows  and  harrows. 
When  you  reach  New  Haven  county  you  can  find  in  New 
Haven,  shops  that  manufacture  anything  that  is  made  in  any 
city,  town  or  village  of  the  State.  As  you  proceed  through  New 
Haven  county  note  the  well-tilled  fields  that  vie  with  the  fac- 
tories in  producing  wealth  because  their  husbandmen  supply 
the  market  of  manufacturing  centers  with  as  fine  vegetables 
as  can  be  secured  anywhere  in  the  world.  Should  you  care  for 
silverware  or  cut  glass,  stop  a  bit  at  Meriden  and  Wallingford. 
New  Haven  is  a  busy,  prosperous  and  growing  city,  with  the 
double  claim  to  fame  that  it  is  both  an  educational  and  an  in- 
dustrial community.  Still  you  have  not  visited  Fairfield  county 
with  the  busy  cities  of  Bridgeport,  Norwalk,  Stamford,  Dan- 

[  394  1 


The  New  England  States 

bury  and  scores  of  smaller  communities,  all  engaged  in  the 
same  endless  variety  of  manufacturers.  You  will  find  Litch- 
field  county  not  devoid  of  manufacturing  in  Torrington  and 
Winsted,  but  more  given  to  agriculture,  and  blessed  with  the 
finest  scenery  in  Connecticut.  Its  hills  are  not  so  lofty  as  the 
more  northerly  Berkshires,  nor  do  they  rise  to  the  grandeur 
of  the  White  mountains,  but  its  many  silvery  lakes  and  rush- 
ing rivers  give  the  eye  many  a  delightful  vista. 

Should  you  come  in  sail  or  motor  boat,  you  will  be  charmed 
by  the  rocky  and  much  indented  shores  of  Connecticut  that 
hold  back  Long  Island  sound.  From  Cos  Cob  on  the  southwest 
to  Noank,  Mystic  and  Stonington  on  the  northeast,  you  will 
be  reminded  more  than  once  of  Cape  Cod's  sandy  beaches  or 
Maine's  rocky  promontories.  Not  by  the  hundreds  but  by  the 
thousands  you  will  note  beautiful  seashore  homes  where  families 
of  means  delight  to  spend  the  summer  term.  You  will  find 
double  the  number  of  more  modest  cottages  of  those  less  well- 
to-do  but  who  love  the  seashore.  And  not  insignificant,  but 
rising  to  a  considerable  industry  measured  in  dollars,  is  the 
oyster,  clam  and  lobster  fishing  of  Connecticut's  seashore 
towns. 

We  have  not  forgotten,  but  we  have  reserved  among  our 
impressions,  to  speak  of  Connecticut's  influence  on  the  educa- 
tional interests  of  the  country.  Vying  in  importance  with 
her  mechanical  and  inventive  influence  is  Connecticut's  imprint 
upon  the  educational  forces  of  the  United  States.  Her  public- 
school  system  is  excellent;  and  the  number  of  her  academics 
and  finishing  schools  make  a  brave  showing  in  the  list.  Her 
colleges  —  Trinity  in  Hartford,  Wesleyan  in  Middletown,  and 
Yale  "the  Mother  of  Colleges,"  in  New  Haven  are  among 
the  elite  in  the  family  of  collegiate  institutions,  with  almost 
16,000  living  graduates,  including  the  President  of  the  United 
States,  a  host  of  senators  and  representatives  in  Congress, 
many  governors,  mayors  and  legislators  in  every  state  of  the 
Union.  Yale's  claim  is  made  good  that  she  "trains  men  for 
public  service."  Theodore  Roosevelt,  himself  an  alumnus  of 
Harvard,  has  said  that  in  every  work  he  ever  undertook  for 
a  civic  or  legislative  betterment,  he  always  found  a  Yale  man 

[  395  1 


The  New  England  States 

shoulder  to  shoulder  with  him  ready  to  do  full  share  of  the 
work. 

If  in  these  few  paragraphs  we  have  succeeded,  by  touching 
only  the  high  lights  in  the  picture,  in  giving  you  a  glimmer- 
ing—  an  impressionistic  pastel  —  of  Connecticut  industrially, 
agriculturally  and  educationally,  you  will  nod  your  head  in 
acquiescence  when  you  hear  it  said  that,  "  Little  old  Connecti- 
cut is  a  mighty  good  state  to  live  in  and  to  work  in." 


MAINE 

The  Maine  label  is  tacked  on  to  a  respectable  portion  of 
New  England  —  a  division  representing  approximately  one- 
half  of  New  England's  entire  land  area,  or  about  30,000  square 
miles,  in  round  numbers.  A  subsection  of  the  State  is  pushed 
up  into  that  part  of  British  territory  known  as  the  Dominion 
of  Canada,  for  a  distance  of  about  150  miles  due  north,  with  a 
resulting  450  miles  or  so  of  border  along  Maine's  northern 
confines.  At  the  time  when  Maine  was  sliced  off  from  Massa- 
chusetts, its  northern  boundary  was  supposed  to  be  many 
miles  north  of  that  part  of  the  St.  John  river  which  now  marks 
its  limits.  A  dispute  arose  over  the  matter,  which  was  adjusted 
in  1846  by  Daniel  Webster  and  Lord  Ashburton,  the  boun- 
dary line  as  it  is  today  being  established  as  a  compromise.  A 
Montreal  newspaper  editor,  early  appreciating  the  unusually 
rich  natural  resources  of  this  section,  put  out  the  statement 
that  Canadians  need  only  to  get  busy  with  transportation  ex- 
tension at  the  border  in  order  to  "  as  good  as  "  annex  Maine's 
Aroostook  county  to  Canada  for  commercial  purposes.  This 
county  is  about  the  size  of  the  present  state  of  Massachusetts. 

It  is  perhaps  but  natural  that  the  "  newer  "  or  less  devel- 
oped portion  of  Maine  should  be  touched  upon  first.  The  only 
natural  transportation  artery  of  size  in  northern  Maine  is  the 
main  St.  John  river.  This  water  takes  its  rise  in  the  central 
western  part  of  the  State  and  courses  northeasterly  for  85 
miles,  wholly  in  Maine.  Then,  for  about  80  miles,  it  denotes 
the  boundary  limitations  between  Maine  and  the  Dominion  of 

f  397  1 


New  England 

Canada.  Its  most  important  tributaries  are  the  Allagash,  Fish 
and  Aroostook  rivers,  although  there  are  many  minor  tribu- 
taries which  are  of  log-floating  capacity.  In  recent  years  rec- 
ognized railroad  opportunity  has  resulted  in  railroad  actual- 
ity in  some  portions  of  this  vast  and  resourceful  expanse  of 
northern  Maine,  augmenting  the  section's  natural  transporta- 
tion facilities,  and  affording  producer  and  consumer,  manu- 
facturer and  utilizer,  a  means  for  speedy  and  economical  inter- 
trafBc. 

In  1851  Hon.  John  Hubbard,  then  governor  of  Maine,  as- 
serted in  his  message  to  the  legislature  that  about  all  of  the 
best  of  Aroostook's  white  pine  had  been  floated  down  the  Sb. 
John  river  to  the  Bay  of  Fundy,  for  the  benefit  of  British 
subjects.  He  apparently  had  an  idea  that  it  was  possible  to 
arouse  New  England  to  the  importance  of  providing  direct 
United  States  transportation  between  Maine's  inland  wealth 
of  timber,  water,  soil,  etc.,  and  the  Atlantic;  which  shows  how 
mistaken  a  governor  could  be  59  years  ago.  And  yet  Gover- 
nor Hubbard  might  reasonably  have  chafed  over  the  predica- 
ment of  his  State  in  relation  to  its  lumber  output,  for  from 
such  records  as  are  available  one  can  guess  that  around  sixty 
billion  feet  of  New  England  soft-wood  logs,  representing  an 
immense  total  of  financial  equivalent,  have  been  floated  out  of 
New  England  for  manufacture  in  Canada. 

In  later  years  the  fame  of  Aroostook  county  has  gone 
around  the  world  as  a  record  region  for  the  growing  of  pota- 
toes. Not  only  can  the  average  yield  per  acre  be  made  excep- 
tionally large,  but  the  stock  is  excellent  for  table  use  and 
superlative  for  seed,  especially  in  the  South.  Potato  culture 
experts  account  for  this  superiority  in  the  fact  that  in  much 
of  the  county  there  is  an  underlying  bed  of  porous  rock,  lying 
usually  about  two  feet  below  the  surface  of  the  earth.  This 
rock  contains  potash,  which  is  a  valuable  potato  food.  Again, 
the  character  of  the  rock  is  such  that  it  aids  to  absorb  mois- 
ture, which  in  turn  is  released  naturally  for  the  most  advan- 
tageous use  of  the  growing  potato  plants.  Most  of  the  farmers 
own  plenty  of  land,  and  can  avoid  the  use  of  the  same  acreage 
for  potatoes  oftener  than  once  in  three  or  four  years,  thus  al- 

f  398  1 


The  New  England  States 

lowing  the  soil  to  recuperate  in  part  preparation  for  further 
crops.  On  ridges,  in  valleys  of  streams  and  rivers,  and,  as  a 
rule,  wherever  the  forests  are  cleared,  the  soil  deposit  is  found 
to  be  rich  and  loamy  and  admirably  adapted  for  easy  and 
profitable  agricultural  use. 

There  is  no  question  but  that,  on  the  basis  of  acreage  under 
cultivation,  northern  Maine  in  general  and  Aroostook  county 
in  particular  hold  the  world's  record  for  the  greatest  annual 
harvest  of  potatoes.  Economical  advantages  of  modern  methods 
in  planting,  cultivating  and  harvesting  combine  with  the  un- 
usual richness  and  adaptability  of  the  soil  to  produce  the  phe- 
nomenal crops  of  this  section.  With  a  potato  harvest  approxi- 
mating 15,000,000  bushels,  and  having  a  monetary  value  of 
around  $9,000,000,  it  is  easy  enough  to  see  why  potato  rais- 
ing "  looks  good  "  to  the  Aroostook  farmer,  particularly  when 
$6,000,000  of  this  harvest  money  is  net  profit. 

Hay,  grain  and  other  crops  also  fare  finely  in  this  section. 
The  land  for  any  of  these  is  easily  cleared,  owing  to  the  fa- 
vorable nature  of  the  soil  and  the  freedom  from  rocks,  and  the 
expense  from  seed  time  to  harvest  is  remarkably  modest  in 
comparison  with  the  value  of  the  agricultural  returns. 

Piscataquis  county  is  rich  in  lumber  and  in  slate,  there 
being  practically  no  limit  to  the  veins  of  the  latter.  Many  of 
these  veins  furnish  slate  of  superior  quality,  which  finds  a 
ready  market  at  favorable  prices.  Near  and  along  Maine's 
coast  lies  a  practically  inexhaustable  supply  of  granite  of 
excellent  and  varied  quality  —  another  important  source  of 
Maine's  wealth  which  has  as  yet  been  drawn  upon  in  com- 
paratively small  measure,  although  granite  quarries  are  fairly 
numerous.  Lime  of  superior  quality  is  also  quarried  and  mar- 
keted. Even  the  pure  spring  water,  with  which  Maine  is  blessed 
so  abundantly,  is  bottled  and  marketed  through  the  enter- 
prise of  Maine's  sons,  and  is  obtainable  in  all  parts  of  the 
world. 

Maine  is  phenomenally  rich  in  natural  waterpowers,  al- 
though only  a  comparatively  small  percentage  of  the  avail- 
able sites  have  as  .yet  been  utilized.  Northern  Maine's  lake 
area  covers  nearly  2000  square  miles.  The  flow  from  these 

[  399  ] 


New  England 

lakes  reaches  the  Atlantic  ocean  through  four  great  rivers,  the 
Penobscot,  Kennebec,  Allegash  and  Fish.  The  Penobscot  has 
an  annual  flow  of  320,000,000,000  cubic  feet  of  water,  the  Ken- 
nebec contributes  226,000,000,000  cubic  feet  of  water  annu- 
ally, and  the  others  in  proportion.  To  properly  harness  this 
immense  flow  for  industrial  use  would  make  available  a  tre- 
mendous and  economical  power,  and  wise  manufacturers  are 
more  and  more  realizing  the  exceptional  opportunities  thus  of- 
fered them  in  Maine,  and  are  taking  advantage  of  them.  Elec- 
tric power  companies  are  already  formed  and  operating  in 
various  sections  of  the  State,  and  their  offerings  of  ample 
power  at  low  cost  make  a  strong  inducement  for  new  industries 
to  come  in  and  settle. 

Some  one  has  aptly  termed  Maine  the  nation's  great  nat- 
ural playground  and  health  resort.  This  is  certainly  no  mis- 
nomer, for  the  attractions  and  advantages  of  the  Maine  open 
seasons  for  health  and  pleasure  seekers  are  attested  at  every 
turn  —  at  the  seashore,  along  the  rivers  and  streams,  by  the 
ponds  and  lakes,  and  at  the  mountains.  Each  summer  finds, 
more  and  more,  thousands  of  vacationists  attracted  to  Maine 
by  life  at  the  shore,  or  in  or  near  the  forests,  and  each  season 
the  enlarging  of  summer  hotels  and  lodges,  or  the  erection 
of  new  ones,  furnish  proof  in  plenty  that  the  summer  army 
of  Maine  invasionists  is  constantly  increasing. 

The  cities  and  towns  of  Maine  are,  as  a  rule,  beautifully 
built  and  neatly  kept.  The  modernizing  spirit  is  prevalent, 
but  not  to  the  detriment  of  natural  beauties  or  the  undoing  of 
conditions  which  have  made  and  kept  Maine  so  widely  popular 
as  a  pleasant,  comfortable  place  to  live  in  all  the  year  round. 
The  charities  of  the  people  are  many;  their  hospitalities  are 
famous;  the  standards  of  the  majority  are  high.  Maine's  far- 
famed  prohibitory  law  has  served  a  useful  purpose.  The  peo- 
ple of  those  states  which  are  without  it  use  it  as  a  means  of  turn- 
ing attention  from  their  own  shortcomings.  Sundry  Maine-ites 
have  brought  this  law  into  disagreeable  prominence  through 
their  inability  to  discover  why  it  does  not  always  work  to  suit 
them,  while  there  are  some  extremists  who  declare  the  people  and 
not  the  law  ought  to  be  changed.  No  Maine  politician  would  be 

[  400  1 


The  New  England  States 

without  the  state  prohibitory  law ;  it  comes  in  handy  now  and 
again  for  the  clergy;  when  conversation  lags,  it  offers  a  con- 
venient and  ever-ready  topic  for  the  native  as  well  as  "  the 
stranger  in  our  midst,"  and  thus  becomes  socially  too  im- 
portant to  be  lightly  set  aside. 

The  state  of  Maine  is  too  large  in  area,  too  diversified  in 
resources,  too  active  with  producing,  manufacturing  and  mar- 
keting its  goods,  and  too  busy  dodging  visiting  automobiles  to 
take  much  of  an  account  of  itself  as  a  whole,  off  the  reel. 
Readers  of  this  sketch  may  have  learned  something  from  it 
about  Maine  that  is  new  to  them,  but  to  get  at  the  whole  story, 
in  the  best  way,  they  had  better  drop  around  to  Maine  at  their 
earliest  convenience  and  take  a  good  look  at  it.  The  invitation 
is  perpetually  extended ;  the  latchstring  is  always  out ;  a  cor- 
dial, hospitable  welcome  awaits  everyone  who  comes. 


VERMONT 

A  scoffer  has  said  that  when  God  finished  making  America 
he  dumped  the  waste  material  all  in  one  place  near  the  Canada 
line  and  called  the  place  Vermont.  It  is  true  that  God  made 
Vermont  last  of  all  and  the  proof  lies  in  his  handiwork.  It  was 
easy  to  spread  out  the  broad  prairies ;  it  was  easy  to  pile 
mountains  one  on  top  of  another;  it  was  easy  to  build  the 
rugged  coast  line  and  smooth  out  the  sandy  beaches:  but  it 
required  a  master  builder,  a  workman  of  high  ideals  and  fault- 
less execution,  to  draw  so  unstintingly  from  the  best  in  crea- 
tion and  from  it  all  prepare  that  little  area  which  among 
those  who  know  is  regarded  as  the  keystone  in  the  arch  of 
God's  world-building  triumph. 

We  would  not  seem  sacrilegious,  but  Vermont  must  have 
been  God's  hobby.  He  made  it  His  art  gallery  and  His  natural 
museum.  He  filled  it  with  perfected  working  models  of  the  finest 
things  in  nature,  and  decorated  it  with  scenes  which  painters 
vainly  have  sought  to  copy.  Vermont  has  no  grand  canon ; 
but  it  has  scores  of  miniature  reproductions  rivaling  the  grand 
canon  in  beauty  if  not  in  grandeur.  It  has  no  boundless  ex- 

[  401  ] 


New  England 

panse  of  prairie;  but  its  fertile  fields  and  meadows  respond 
as  readily  to  the  needs  of  man.  It  has  no  Niagara;  yet  its 
hundreds  of  waterfalls  rival  Niagara  in  the  beauty  and  genius 
of  their  creation.  It  has  no  sky-splitting,  snow-capped  summits ; 
yet  its  accessible  and  ever-verdant  mountain  peaks  afford  a 
charm  unparalleled.  The  grand  canon,  the  prairie,  Niagara 
and  the  Rockies,  impress  the  visitor  with  his  own  insignifi- 
cance, while  their  miniature  reproductions  in  Vermont  exhil- 
arate him  and  seem  to  congratulate  him  upon  his  presence. 
One  may  worship  the  awe  inspiring,  but  he  loves  the  beautiful. 

Some  day  a  literary  genius  acting  under  the  inspiration  of 
his  environment  will  draw  a  pen  picture  of  Vermont  which 
may  do  the  State  justice.  Many  have  tried  it,  and  have  suc- 
ceeded in  drawing  pretty  pen  pictures ;  but  they  were  not  pic- 
tures of  Vermont  —  they  simply  represented  one  of  the  de- 
tails of  Vermont  beauty.  Henry  Ward  Beecher  shunned  the 
attempt  at  description,  and  said,  "  Vermont  contains  the  most 
beautiful  scenic  effects  within  my  memory."  A  tour  of  Ver- 
mont unfolds  to  the  enraptured  eye  a  never-ceasing  panorama 
of  landscape  and  foliage  preserved  in  memory  alone.  It  is  be- 
yond the  realm  of  pen  or  camera.  Many  of  the  world's  natural 
wonders  hold  the  visitor  spellbound  because  of  their  magni- 
tude and  grandeur;  but  a  Vermont  landscape  holds  the  at- 
tention solely  by  reason  of  its  merit  as  a  thing  of  beauty.  No 
one  is  riveted  to  the  spot  —  he  stays  as  a  matter  of  choice. 
Whoever  made  Vermont  was  a  connoisseur  of  landscape;  as 
well  of  its  lines,  curves,  and  angles,  as  of  its  diversity.  He 
took  some  pride  in  his  work. 

To  argue  that  Vermont  is  the  very  best  state  in  the  coun- 
try it  will  be  necessary  to  resort  to  comparisons.  It  must  be 
conceded  that  Vermont  excels  all  others  in  the  beauty  of  its 
setting.  It  ought  to  be  conceded  that  Vermont  excels  as  the 
abiding  place  of  man  —  in  supplying  those  prime  necessities, 
food,  shelter  and  recreation.  When  God  finished  making 
America  He  found  He  had  inadvertently  made  a  few  omis- 
sions. When  He  piled  high  the  rugged  mountains  He  neglected 
the  food  supply,  and  when  He  spread  out  the  fertile  plains  He 
omitted  a  means  of  shelter.  In  making  Vermont  He  took  ad- 

[  402  ] 


vantage  of  His  experience  and  made  ample  provision  for  every 
want  of  man.  That  is  why  we  know  He  made  Vermont  last,  and 
that  is  why  those  who  know  speak  of  Vermont  as  being  God's 
own  country. 

Vermont  was  once  a  republic,  independent  of  every  other 
power,  and  it  might  well  have  remained  so,  for.  it  was  not  de- 
pendent upon  any  other  territory  for  its  existence.  Nature  had 
provided  scores  of  fertile  river  valleys  and  productive  hillsides 
from  which  to  feed  its  people.  Its  soil  and  climate  have  never 
failed  to  bring  forth  a  seedtime  and  a  harvest,  and  every 
crop  necessary  for  the  maintenance  of  its  people  can  be  raised 
within  its  own  area.  The  staples  are  grown  throughout  the 
State;  hundreds  of  acres  in  the  Connecticut  river  valley  are 
devoted  to  the  culture  of  tobacco,  and  hundreds  of  acres  in 
the  Champlain  valley  are  devoted  to  the  culture  of  apples 
which  in  taste  and  texture  equal  like  productions  from  any 
other  part  of  the  world.  Alfalfa  is  being  introduced  in  many 
parts  of  the  State  with  flattering  results.  The  finer  fruits  and 
shrubs  are  grown  in  many  parts  of  the  State  for  pastime 
rather  than  profit,  but  they  show  the  versatility  of  Vermont 
soil. 

Vermont  has  no  corn  belt,  no  mammoth  wheat  fields,  no 
orange  groves  and  no  ranches,  yet  any  other  state  in  the 
Union  might  well  envy  it  for  the  diversity  of  lines  in  which  it 
excels.  It  leads  the  world  in  the  production  of  maple  sugar. 
The  government  has  recognized  the  qualities  of  the  Vermont 
Morgan  horse  and  has  established  a  stock  farm  in  Vermont 
for  the  purpose  of  perpetuating  this  species  of  equine  excel- 
lence. Australia  and  the  South  American  republics  look  to  Ver- 
mont for  that  other  Vermont  thoroughbred,  the  Merino  sheep, 
and  hundreds  of  shipments  have  been  made  at  prices  which 
stagger  the  ordinary  sheep  producer.  Vermont  has  more  head 
of  cattle  than  can  be  found  in  any  of  the  so-called  great  cattle 
producing  states  of  the  country,  and  can  count  more  dairy 
cows  on  a  given  area  than  any  other  state.  Better  than  all 
this,  Vermont  dairy  products  sell  at  a  premium  in  every  im- 
portant market  in  the  East. 

The  story  of  Vermont's  success  as  an  agricultural  state  but 

[  403] 


The  New  England  States 

half  tells  the  story  of  its  achievements.  Other  states  have  so 
exploited  their  advantages-  that  they  seem  to  have  left  Vermont 
far  behind  in  the  race  for  commercial  prestige;  yet  the  fact 
remains  that  Vermont  has  built  up  the  greatest  marble  indus- 
try in  the  world,  and  many  of  the  most  beautiful  buildings  in 
America  bear  witness  to  the  quality  of  Vermont  marble.  Ver- 
mont also  holds  the  key  to  the  slate  situation  in  America,  its 
quarries  and  works  ranking  with  the  best  the  country  affords. 
In  the  production  and  manufacture  of  granite,  Vermont  so 
far  outranks  the  rest  of  the  country  as  to  stand  almost  alone 
in  the  industry,  having  both  the  largest  quarries  and  the 
largest  polishing  works.  As  if  it  were  not  enough  that  Vermont 
should  lead  the  world  in  the  production  of  fireproof  building 
material  in  its  marble,  slate  and  granite,  prospectors  have 
now  uncovered  what  gives  every  promise  of  being  the  greatest 
asbestos  producing  mines  in  the  world.  Expert  geologists  af- 
firm that  Vermont  has  a  vein  of  asbestos-bearing  rock  which  is 
a  continuation  of,  but  which  excels,  the  famous  Black  Lake 
and  Thetford  veins  in  Canada.  Vermont  asbestos  mines  are 
now  being  operated  on  a  paying  basis.  They  have  become  re- 
alities rather  than  speculative  possibilities. 

The  foregoing  industries  owe  their  success  in  a  measure  to 
their  proximity  to  the  source  of  supply.  In  each  case  Vermont 
produces  the  raw  material.  But  Vermont  success  is  not  de- 
pendent upon  producing  its  own  raw  material,  as  is  shown  by 
the  fact  that  Vermont  leads  the  world  in  the  production  of 
scales.  Vermont  has  the  largest  veneer  factory  in  the  world,  as 
well  as  the  largest  factory  for  the  manufacture  of  overalls, 
frocks  and  jumpers.  Every  factory  in  Vermont  for  the  manu- 
facture of  cotton  and  woolen  goods  has  been  a  financial  success. 

Now  attend!  You  who  have  come  to  believe  that  Vermont 
produces  nothing  but  whiskers  and  hayseed,  read  this :  Besides 
leading  the  world  in  marble,  slate,  granite,  scales,  veneer,  ov- 
eralls, maple  sugar,  Morgan  horses,  Merino  sheep  and  dairy 
cows  —  besides  all  these,  a  recent  edition  of  Who's  Who  shows 
that  Vermont  has  produced,  per  capita,  more  men  who  have 
made  good  in  other  states  than  any  state  in  the  Union.  By 
many  people  outside  the  State  the  word  "  Vermont "  has  been 

f  405  1 


New  England 

used  to  convey  the  idea  of  a  backwoods  country,  as  illiterate 
as  it  was  uncouth.  Vermont  alone  must  bear  the  blame  for  this 
erroneous  impression,  for  during  all  these  years  of  her  devel- 
opment she  has  been  hiding  her  light  under  a  bushel,  while 
other  states  and  communities  have  been  making  a  diligent  and 
systematic  bid  for  more  fame  and  more  business.  It  never  was 
characteristic  of  Vermonters  to  rush  in  where  angels  fear  to 
tread,  but  there  are  signs  and  symptoms  that  Vermont  is  near 
the  dawn  of  a  new  commercial  era.  Ex-Governor  Prouty  was 
elected  as  an  exponent  of  the  "  New  Vermont."  Governor  Mead 
is  in  full  sympathy  with  the  movement,  and  the  press  of  the 
State  is  taking  up  the  cause.  Vermont  soon  may  be  expected 
to  make  the  most  of  her  unparalleled  advantages  and  reap  the 
reward  which  will  come  from  the  development  of  her  innumer- 
able granite  quarries,  waterpower  privileges,  asbestos  mines 
and  from  the  scientific  cultivation  of  her  soil.  The  greater  por- 
tion of  the  State's  population  was  reared  within  its  borders, 
and  but  few  of  them  realize  the  vast  possibilities  awaiting 
profitable  development.  Familiarity  seems  to  have  bred  con- 
tempt; and  some  day  not  far  distant  the  people  of  the  State 
will  awake  to  the  fact  that  these  advantages  have  slipped 
away  from  them  and  have  come  under  the  control  and  have 
enriched  outside  capitalists  who  had  enough  nerve  to  back 
their  own  judgment.  If  any  other  state  possessed  such  ad- 
vantages they  would  have  been  capitalized  long  ago,  and  the 
stock  could  have  been  sold  in  Vermont. 

Here  is  a  little  state  of  comparatively  few  square  miles  in 
area,  equidistant  from  Portland,  Boston,  New  York  and 
Montreal  traversed  by  two  great  transcontinental  lines  of  rail- 
road and  with  splendid  local  and  New  England  connections, 
leading  the  world  in  many  industries  and  pursuits,  and  yet 
its  great  natural  resources  are  but  partially  developed.  Why? 
Simply  because  Vermont's  great  possibilities  are  unknown  out- 
side the  State  —  simply  because  Vermont  has  acted  upon  the 
erroneous  theory  that  the  better  an  article  is  the  less  it  need 
be  advertised.  Vermont  stands  in  the  position  of  the  trader 
who  has  a  superior  article  of  commerce  but  who  sees  the  trade 
follow  an  inferior  but  more  widely  advertised  counterfeit. 

f  406  ] 


The  New  England  States 

Vermont  has  the  goods,  both  in  quantity  and  quality,  but  she 
needs  more  of  that  antidote  for  commercial  stagnation  — 
publicity. 

NEW    HAMPSHIRE 

New  Hampshire  has  always  held  a  prominent  place  indus- 
trially among  the  New  England  states,  but  there  seems  now 
as  never  before  to  be  a  full  awakening  to  its  great  potential 
wealth.  Four  of  the  most  important  rivers  in  New  England 
have  their  rise  in  the  White  Mountain  region  of  New  Hamp- 
shire, and  these,  with  innumerable  other  smaller  rivers,  each 
of  considerable  importance,  provide  almost  unlimited  water- 
powers.  While  these  waterpowers  have  been  utilized  to  some 
extent  for  years  for  manufacturing  purposes,  it  is  now  recog- 
nized that  their  full  utilization  means  the  production  of  power 
sufficient  for  a  multitude  of  industries,  to  run  the  transporta- 
tion systems  of  the  State,  and  furnish  electric  lights  for  its 
cities  and  towns.  Just  as  the  residues  and  by-products  of  many 
industrial  processes  that  were  once  thrown  away  have  been 
found  to  contain  some  useful  substance  or  potency,  the  value 
of  which  in  some  instances  exceeds  that  of  the  primary  prod- 
uct itself,  so  in  natural  resources  we  find  that  there  is  un- 
told wealth  in  power  and  opportunity  going  to  waste  every 
day  all  about  us.  Many  .of  these  power  sites  in  New  Hamp- 
shire have  been  purchased,  and  plans  are  under  way  for  their 
development ;  there  are  still  abundant  opportunities  for  other 
enterprises  of  this  nature,  and  nowhere  is  the  prospect  of  re- 
ward greater.  The  full  development  of  New  Hampshire's 
waterpowers  will  change  the  whole  character  of  many  sections 
of  the  State.  The  utilization  of  these  forces  for  industrial  pur- 
poses means  the  building  of  large  towns  and  cities  along  the 
rivers,  thus  making  good  markets  for  the  products  of  the 
farms  in  these  valleys,  increasing  land  values,  and  bringing 
prosperity  and  new  life  to  the  farmers. 

The  forests  by  proper  operation  and  reforestation  will  fur- 
nish material  for  the  present  use  and  normal  growth  of  all 
the  lumbering  and  wood-working  industries  of  the  State.  Our 

[  407] 


New  England 

specialists  in  forestry,  power  production,  mill  operation 
and  agriculture  can  engineer  the  utilization  of  all  these 
natural  products  and  resources  without  marring  to  any  ap- 
preciable degree  the  esthetic  value  of  the  natural  scenery, 
which  has  always  been  one  of  the  greatest  assets  of  New 
Hampshire. 

The  mighty  Merrimac,  as  we  learned  to  say  in  school, 
"  turns  more  spindles  than  any  other  river  in  the  world,"  and 
on  its  banks  is  the  largest  cotton-manufacturing  plant  in  the 
world,  besides  many  other  industries ;  and  then  it  flows  on  for 
further  usefulness  in  another  state.  Along  its  valley  is  some 
of  the  finest  farming  land  to  be  found  anywhere,  and  ample 
market  for  produce  is  near  at  hand  in  the  cities  and  villages 
along  its  banks.  Here  in  the  Merrimac  valley  originated  the 
famous  Baldwin  apple,  one  of  the  best  known  and  best  liked 
varieties.  Millions  of  gallons  of  milk  is  produced  yearly  in 
this  valley  and  shipped  to  Boston  and  other  cities.  Through- 
out the  State  are  broad  acres  of  rich  farm  land,  and  over 
ninety  percent  of  its  farms  are  operated  by  owners.  There  is 
abundant  grazing  land  not  utilized,  although  more  attention 
is  being  paid  each  year  to  stock  raising.  In  the  list  of  manu- 
factured products  cotton  goods  lead.  Woolen  goods,  hosiery 
and  other  knit  goods  and  textiles  are  also  important.  New 
Hampshire  is  one  of  the  important  states  in  the  production 
of  paper  and  wood  pulp.  Lumber  and  timber  products,  foun- 
dry and  machine  shop  products,  cars,  locomotives,  fire  engines, 
granite,  slate,  marble,  mica  and  a  multitude  of  other  products 
are  turned  out  in  abundance. 

New  Hampshire  is  perhaps  better  and  more  widely  known 
on  account  of  the  scenery  of  the  White  mountains,  for  to 
none  of  the  eastern  states  has  nature  been  more  generous  in 
this  respect  than  to  the  Granite  State.  Aptly  has  it  been  called 
the  Switzerland  of  America,  for  here  is  to  be  found  some  of 
the  most  famous  scenic  beauty  in  the  world.  Here  gather  the 
men  and  women  from  all  walks  of  life,  seeking  pleasure  in  the 
beauty  of  the  woods  and  mountains,  recreation  in  the  games, 
climbing  and  fishing,  and  health  in  the  green  pharmacy  of 
nature.  It  is  a  resting-place  for  the  millions,  as  well  as  for 

[  408  ] 


The  New  England  States 

the  millionaire.  Its  summer  hostelries  range  from  the  million- 
and-a-half-dollar  palace  hotel,  with  its  kings  of  finance  and 
captains  of  industry  and  their  richly-gowned  ladies,  to  the  less 
pretentious  farm  boarding-houses  where  the  moderate-salaried 
city  worker  can  find  rest  from  toil  and  heat  and  enjoy  all  the 
beauties  of  the  scenery.  In  the  more  than  400  square  miles  of 
mountains  there  arc  over  twenty-five  peaks  over  2,500  feet  in 
altitude,  and  over  fifteen  that  are  over  4,000  feet.  Mt.  Wash- 
ington, the  highest  and  chief  among  the  Presidential  range, 
rears  its  summit  to  an  altitude  of  6,290  feet,  with  all  the  stern 
and  stately  grandeur  of  the  illustrious  American  for  whom  it 
was  named.  Within  the  hundred-mile  radius  of  prospect  from 
its  summit  can  be  seen  the  ocean,  Lake  Winnepesaukee,  Sebago 
and  the  Rangeley  lakes,  as  well  as  innumerable  other  smaller 
ones,  in  Maine,  Vermont  and  Canada.  Only  a  few  hours'  ride 
—  and  all  the  way  by  rail  —  from  New  England's  metropolis 
is  this  cool  retreat  where  one  may  watch  the  sunset  from  a 
point  more  than  a  mile  above  the  tallest  office  building,  eat 
lunch  at  the  Tip  Top  house,  and  read  the  newspaper  published 
up  there  above"  the  clouds.  Within  a  twenty  hours'  ride  there 
are  twenty-five  millions  of  people.  This  is  indeed  the  vacation 
land  preeminent  in  all  the  world.  This  region  abounds  in  leg- 
endary lore  and  stories  of  the  adventures  and  hardships  of  the 
early  pioneers ;  all  this  adds  to  its  charm  for  the  summer 
visitor  seeking  rest  from  the  money-mad  moil  of  the  city.  To 
the  lover  of  mountain  climbing  the  interminable  miles  of  trails, 
well  defined  and  kept  up  by  the  Appalachian  Mountain  club, 
offer  all  that  can  be  desired,  and  wonderful  worlds  await  the 
vision  of  those  who  undertake  these  arduous  tramps.  Over 
2,000,000  acres  of  forests,  with  picturesque  waterfalls  and 
sparkling  streams  where  abound  the  immaculate  brook  trout, 
furnish  unexcelled  opportunities  for  the  khaki-suited  tramper 
to  breathe  the  delicious  fragrance  of  the  pine  and  balsam,  lis- 
ten to  the  joyous  music  of  the  feathered  minstrels,  dine  on  the 
choicest  piscatorial  delicacies,  and  sleep  on  a  bed  of  scented 
fir  boughs  under  the  "  big  tent "  —  a  regime  that  will  round 
off  the  corners  of  the  human  disposition  and  make  life  seem 
worth  while.  The  grandeur  of  this  mountain  region  is  peren- 

[  409  ] 


The  New  England  States 

nial,  and  winter  sees  many  sleighing  and  snow-shoeing  parties 
at  the  hotels  which  keep  open  during  the  winter  or  open  for 
these  special  occasions.  The  mountains,  rivers  and  brooks  of 
this  region  have  furnished  their  full  quota  of  inspiration  for 
artists  and  poets,  and  are  immortalized  in  many  a  sketch  and 
song.  The  sunsets  from  Intervale  are  famous  all  over  the 
world.  Indeed,  so  charming  is  this  State  to  men  of  artistic  and 
literary  temperament  that  it  has  won  no  little  fame  for  hav- 
ing been  chosen  as  a  permanent  home  by  St.  Gaudens,  Church- 
ill, Parrish,  and  a  great  coterie  of  authors  and  artists.  The 
shoemaker  hangs  out  a  shoe,  and  the  jeweler  a  watch,  over  the 
door  of  his  shop  to  indicate  what  is  made  there.  Way  up  in 
New  Hampshire  God  hung  a  gigantic  stone  man  high  on  a 
mountain  side,  to  indicate  that  there  He  makes  men.  The  early 
pioneers  from  their  first  landing  on  the  "  Strawberry  Banks  " 
were  forced  to  provide  for  all  the  necessities  of  life,  and  from 
this  schooling  in  resourcefulness  and  self-dependence,  aided 
by  the  vigorous  climate,  has  grown  the  sturdy  character  of  the 
people.  New  Hampshire  has  furnished  a  president,  a  vice- 
president,  cabinet  officials,  journalists,  and  men  of  prominence 
and  sterling  worth  in  every  walk  of  life,  and  a  statesman  and 
orator  of  world-wide  renown  and  undying  fame.  New  Hamp- 
shire is  not  lacking  in  educational  institutions.  Dartmouth 
college  needs  no  eulogy  —  its  graduates  are  living  eulogies, 
and  are  scattered  all  over  the  world.  Two  of  its  preparatory 
schools  draw  many  of  their  pupils  from  distant  states.  Its 
public  schools  and  its  many  other  private  preparatory  schools 
are  of  high  standing. 

Thus  we  see  that  Nature  has  spared  no  pains  in  showing  her 
handiwork  in  scenic  splendor  and  has  provided  the  elements 
and  surroundings  for  restoration  of  the  ill  and  rest  and  recrea- 
tion for  the  overworked,  as  well  as  the  many  sports  for  the  vig- 
orous. All  this  mountain  and  forest  region  has  been  turned  to 
economic  usefulness  as  well  in  providing  a  source  of  abundant 
waterpowers  for  manufacturing  and  the  fertile  farm  lands  in 
the  valleys.  With  all  these  natural  endowments,  the  people 
have  developed  a  strong  character  for  industry  and  enter- 
prise that  has  made  them  a  force  in  the  commercial  and  intel- 

[  411  ] 


New  England 

lectual  world,  and  stimulated  them  to  found  institutions  and 
to  train  their  sons  and  daughters  to  important  usefulness. 


RHODE    ISLAND 

It  has  been  said  —  and  it  is  probably  true  —  that  no  similar 
area  in  the  United  States  is  as  diversified  as  is  Rhode  Island, 
in  landscape  and  contour,  in  foliage,  in  flora  and  fauna  and 
in  geological  formation.  From  these  facts  it  has  come  to  pass 
that  no  state  in  the  Union  possesses  greater  diversity  of  op- 
portunities for  summer  pastimes  and  recreation.  Variety  in- 
deed appears  to  be  the  most  striking  characteristic  of  the 
smallest  of  all  the  states.  Its  industries,  its  institutions  and 
its  people  are  astonishingly  varied.  Its  opinions,  its  occupa- 
tions and  all  the  manifestations  of  its  existence  have  been  un- 
usual and  individual,  through  the  years  of  history.  "  Of  all  the 
American  states,"  writes  James  Bryce,  "  Rhode  Island  is  that 
one  that  best  deserves  the  study  of  the  philosophic  historian." 
Rhode  Island  is  milder  and  less  variable  in  climate  than  the 
other  New  England  states,  although  there  is  considerable 
difference  between  the  northern  and  southern  portions,  and  as 
a  consequence,  much  of  the  wild  foliage  is  of  a  distinctively 
southern  type  not  elsewhere  found  in  New  England.  Here  how- 
ever it  grows  beside  the  characteristic  foliage  of  the  North, 
some  of  which  finds  its  southern  limit  in  Rhode  Island.  There 
is  a  splendid  assortment  of  the  beautiful  things  of  nature: 
broad  glistening  beaches,  and  wild,  wooded  hills,  rocky  cliffs 
overhanging  the  ocean,  hundreds  of  miles  of  bay  shores,  wind- 
ing, rushing  rivers  and  dense  tangled  forests  where  the  advent 
of  man  is  as  yet  scarcely  known.  There  are  many  lakes  and 
there  are  barren  sand  dunes ;  there  are  exquisite  and  fashion- 
able summer  places  that  vie  with  any  in  the  Old  World,  and 
there  are  secluded  camps  where  Nature  is  untroubled  in  her 
luxuriance.  Although  Rhode  Island  is  growing  in  density  of 
population  faster  than  any  other  state  in  the  Union,  she  never- 
theless has  a  larger  proportion  of  wooded  area  than  any  other, 
and  almost  within  sight  of  her  bustling  cities  there  are  trails 

F  412  1 


The  New  England  States 

through  the  tanglewood  that  have  survived  in  much  of  their 
primitive  wilderness  since  the  days  when  the  red  men  made 
them.  There  are  quaint  hamlets,  lovely  farms,  and  everything 
that  is  oldest  and  newest  in  our  civilization.  There  are  splendid 
modern  roads  that  give  ready  access  to  every  part  of  the  State 
and  the  two  adjoining  states. 

Narragansett  Bay,  the  chief  asset  of  picturesque  as  well  as 
commercial  interest  in  the  State,  is  about  thirty  miles  long 
and  from  two  to  twelve  miles  wide.  Its  shores  are  extremely 
varied  and  deeply  indented  by  a  multitude  of  small  bays  and 
harbors.  The  three  main  entrances  are  deep  and  direct,  yet 
well  protected  from  the  ocean  by  the  two  larger  islands  — 
Aquidneck,  upon  which  Newport  is  situated,  and  Conanicut, 
upon  which  is  Jamestown.  There  are  miles  upon  miles  of 
shores  bordered  by  beautiful  summer  estates,  and  fine  old 
towns  snugly  tucked  away  behind  the  long  headlands.  The 
chief  rivers  of  the  State  are  the  Blackstone,  the  Pawtuxet,  the 
Wood,  the  Usquepaug,  the  Queens,  and  the  Pawcatuck.  They 
form  a  network  of  waterways  by  which  with  slight  "  carries  " 
the  State  may  be  traveled  in  many  directions  with  as  much 
fascination  to  the  canoeist  as  may  the  wilds  of  Maine  or  On- 
tario. It  is  not  to  be  wondered  at  that  there  are  world-famous 
summer  clubs  upon  the  bay  shore;  that  yachts  abound  on 
Narragansett's  waters ;  that  canoeing  and  rowing  and  salt- 
water bathing  seem  to  be  a  second  nature  to  most  Rhode 
Islanders.  Nor  is  it  to  be  wondered  at  that  Rhode  Island's 
skill  in  naval  designing  has  produced  the  great  cup  de- 
fenders that  have  held  supremacy  against  all  foreign 
challenge. 

Newport,  the  "  Queen  of  watering  places,"  is  famous  for 
many  things.  It  is  the  most  fashionable  resort  in  America. 
The  "  cottages  "  or  villas  of  its  summer  residents  are  mag- 
nificent. Its  cliffs  and  its  beaches,  its  superb  ocean  drive  and 
its  stately  shaded  avenues  are  known  throughout  the  world. 
Its  history  is  full  of  incident  and  charm.  One  of  the  greatest 
of  naval  stations  is  located  there,  and  it  is  an  army  post  of 
importance.  Fort  Adams  at  the  entrance  of  the  harbor  is  one 
of  the  strongest  defenses  in  the  United  States,  and  the  power 

[  413  ] 


New  England 

of  the  government  is  also  represented  here  by  the  United 
States  Naval  War  College,  the  Government  Training  Station 
and  Torpedo  Station,  the  Naval  Hospital,  and  other  exten- 
sive enterprises.  The  "  war  games "  of  military  and  naval 
forces  are  exceedingly  interesting  features  of  its  summer  life. 
Narragansett  Pier  is  only  a  little  less  famous  than  Newport. 
It  is  celebrated  for  its  great  hotels,  its  superb  bathing  beach, 
its  splendid  summer  residences,  and  the  varied  assortment  of 
delightful  drives.  It  is  indeed  one  of  the  most  fashionable  re- 
sorts of  the  East.  The  outlook  is  directly  upon  the  ocean  at 
the  mouth  of  the  west  passage  of  Narragansett  bay.  A  fine 
promenade  extends  along  the  rocks  south  of  the  old  "  Pier," 
and  a  famous  drive  leads  to  a  rocky  corner  of  the  State  at 
Point  Judith.  Watch  Hill  is  another  celebrated  hotel  and  cot- 
tage resort.  It  has  a  fine  ocean  beach  and  still  waters  for 
bathing  and  sailing,  and  it  guards  the  western  entrance  of 
Long  Island  sound.  Very  different  from  any  of  these  places 
is  Block  Island,  the  "  Isle  of  Manisees."  This  is  a  barren, 
wind-swept  isle,  far  out  to  sea ;  very  undulating  in  its  surface, 
with  a  multitude  of  fresh-water  ponds  in  the  deep  hollows  be- 
tween its  rolling  hills.  On  the  south  shore  are  majestic  cliffs 
that  are  forever  washing  away  and  bringing  great  sand  bars 
around  to  the  northern  end  of  the  island.  There  are  numerous 
hotels,  a  splendid  bathing  beach,  and  some  pleasant  drives. 
A  hardy  race  of  mariners  inhabit  the  island,  and  although  the 
business  of  catering  to  summer  guests  is  preeminent  the 
fisheries  are  of  much  importance. 

Of  all  the  states  in  America,  Rhode  Island  perhaps  is  the 
most  entitled  to  look  back  over  its  record  with  unalloyed  sat- 
isfaction. With  honor  and  justice  it  began  its  career.  With 
fearless  loyalty  and  dignity  it  has  continued  its  existence. 
Its  name  is  writ  large  in  American  history.  The  principles  of 
liberty  that  now  guide  our  government  are  the  ones  set  forth 
by  its  founder.  The  stirring  events  that  preceded  the  forma- 
tion of  the  Union  took  place  within  its  borders.  It  struck  the 
first  successful  blow  for  freedom,  when  the  citizens  of  Provi- 
dence captured  the  Gaspee  in  June,  1772.  It  was  first  among 
the  colonies  to  protest  publicly  against  taxation  without 

[  414  ] 


The  New  England  States 

representation,  and  sent  representatives  to  England  for  the 
purpose.  Providence  was  the  scene  of  the  first  colonial  declara- 
tion of  independence,  and  two  months  before  the  delegates  of 
the  various  colonies  met  at  Philadelphia  to  declare  their  sepa- 
ration from  the  mother  country  the  legislature  of  Rhode 
Island  met  at  the  old  state  house  in  Providence  and  formally 
declared  Rhode  Island  to  be  a  sovereign  and  independent 
state.  It  was  the  first  to  recognize  religious  liberty,  and  to 
try  in  a  practical  way  the  great  experiment  of  separatory 
church  and  state. 

But  the  victories  of  Rhode  Island  have  been  those  of  peace 
more  notably  than  those  of  war.  The  guiding  principles  of 
Rhode  Island  have  become  the  principles  of  our  nation,  and 
our  civilization  is  fast  becoming  the  inspiration  and  power  of 
the  world.  Rhode  Islanders  are  in  reality  industrious  and 
frugal,  and  they  have  more  individual  savings  bank  deposits 
than  any  equal  number  of  people  in  any  other  state.  Rhode 
Island  contains  one  of  the  most  prosperous  industrial  dis- 
tricts in  the  United  States,  and  it  has  been  estimated  that  one- 
twentieth  of  all  the  wealth  in  the  country  is  within  fifty  miles 
of  Providence.  The  census  shows  that  the  factories  in  this 
district  have  been  increasing  at  the  rate  of  about  one  a  week 
for  the  past  few  years.  This  district  is  known  for  the  variety 
of  its  products  and  the  skilled  workmanship  of  its  artisans. 
Preeminent  among  its  varied  industries  is  the  manufacture 
of  jewelry  with  its  allied  interests.  Providence  contains  the 
largest  silverware  establishment  and  the  largest  mechanical 
tool  manufactory  in  the  world,  and  the  product  of  its  workers 
in  silver  is  greater  than  that  of  any  other  state  in  the  coun- 
try. The  Providence  district  is  the  greatest  textile  center  in 
the  country.  It  has  no  near  competitor  in  the  world  in  the 
manufacture  of  screws  and  files.  It  is  a  large  producer  of 
foundry  and  machine  shop  products  and  rubber  goods,  and 
leads  in  the  dyeing  and  finishing  of  textiles.  Being  surrounded 
by  the  greatest  cotton  and  woolen  manufacturing  district  in 
America  it  has  become  one  of  the  greatest  cotton  and  wool 
markets,  as  well  as  the  national  headquarters  for  the  supply- 
ing of  textile  machinery,  metal  mill  supplies,  and  for  the 

f  415  1 


New  England 

planning  and  insuring  of  mills.  This  district  in  1900  was 
sixth  among  the  industrial  centers  for  capital  invested  and 
wage-earners  employed,  and  fifth  in  the  annual  amount  of 
wages  paid;  $143,000,000  of  products  were  being  annually 
produced  in  factories  which  had  a  capital  of  $140,000,000 
and  paid  $31,687,953  to  their  75,000  employes.  According 
to  the  census  its  manufactures  have  increased  more  rapidly 
than  those  of  any  other  state.  The  factory  inspector's  report 
for  January  1,  1908,  shows  that  the  number  of  employes  in 
the  leading  industries  had  advanced  from  60,858  in  1897  to 


CAMPBELL   AVENUE   BRIDGE.   WEST   HAVEN.   CONN.,   ON   N.    Y., 
N.   H.   &    H.    RAILROAD 

137,000  in  1907,  a  net  gain  of  more  than  125  percent  in  ten 
years.  This  extraordinary  record  is  verified  by  the  result  of 
the  special  industrial  census  taken  under  the  authority  of 
the  Rhode  Island  Bureau  of  Industrial  Statistics,  and  relat- 
ing to  sixteen  leading  industries.  It  was  found  that  in  two 
years  the  invested  capital  had  grown  more  than  twelve  per- 
cent, and  the  value  of  products  nearly  thirty-two  percent: 

[  416  ] 


The  New  England  States 

the  number  of  wage-earnera  had  increased  eighteen  and  one- 
half  percent,  while  the  total  wages  earned  had  increased  al- 
most thirty  percent. 

The  commercial  importance  of  this  southern  gateway  of 
New  England  is  by  no  means  insignificant.  When  the  dredg- 
ing now  in  progress  by  the  national  government  is  finished  its 
inner  harbor  will  have  a  uniform  depth  of  twenty-five  feet, 
over  an  anchorage  area  of  171  acres.  Further  plans  by  the 
government  contemplate  straightening  and  widening  the  main 
channel  at  a  cost  of  about  $1,000,000 ;  and  the  city  of  Provi- 
dence proposes  to  expend  $450,000  and  to  donate  certain 
land  that  obstructs  a  more  direct  approach  to  the  wharves. 
The  State  has  voted  half  a  million  dollars  for  public  docks. 
The  New  York,  New  Haven  &  Hartford  railroad,  which  has 
invested  many  millions  of  dollars  in  Providence  dnring  the 
past  few  years,  and  has  just  built  a  new  bridge  and  tunnel  at 
a  cost  of  about  $2,000,000,  is  planning  to  spend  about 
$2,000,000  more  on  improved  docking  facilities  near  India 
Point.  The  Grand  Trunk  terminal  will  undoubtedly  include 
docks  for  ocean  steamers  as  a  part  of  its  equipment.  This 
great  transcontinental  railroad  will  provide  direct  connec- 
tion with  the  Connecticut  valley,  Vermont  and  Montreal,  the 
Lake  region,  the  great  fields  of  the  Canadian  northwest,  and 
the  Pacific  Ocean. 

Rhode  Island  stands  high  educationally  and  socially.  Brown 
University,  the  Rhode  Island  School  of  Design,  the  Annmary 
Museum,  and  other  famous  libraries,  galleries  and  museums, 
all  splendid  of  their  kind,  and  all  conducted  on  broad  and 
generous  principles,  rank  high  among  the  educational  and 
artistic  institutions  of  the  country.  There  are  a  great  many 
private  art  collections  in  Providence  that  are  among  the  most 
notable  in  the  world.  Its  yacht  and  outing  clubs  are  numer- 
ous, and  some  of  them  among  the  most  elaborate  in  the  coun- 
try. Rhode  Island  with  its  great  industries  and  supremacy  of 
manufacturing  life  has  kept  pace  with  the  world,  in  its  ideals 
of  culture  and  education,  and  furnishes  ample  opportunity  for 
the  enterprise  of  its  citizens,  their  education  and  culture,  and 
invigorating  sports  and  charming  recreations. 

[417] 


Potential  New  England 

THE  New  Englander  with  imagination,  and  a  fair  knowl- 
edge of  conditions  as  they  exist  and  the  reasonable  promises 
for  the  future,  may  project  upon  the  screen  of  his  belief  and 
hope  a  sharp  and  truthful  picture  of  the  New  England  of  the 
next  generation ;  or  it  may  be  the  New  England  of  the  second 
generation  hence,  or  even  the  New  England  of  the  next  decade. 
When  the  New  England  his  reason  tells  him  is  coming  will 
arrive  he  cannot  predict.  He  sees  the  present,  but  the  future 
is  something  to  hope  for  and  to  realize  through  faith  and  im- 
agination. This  imaginative  New  Englander,  who  is  trying  to 
persuade  himself  that  the  great  future  for  his  beloved  states 
is  really  materializing,  thinks  of  many  things  before  he  per- 
mits himself  to  indulge  in  ecstatic  joys  of  justified  hope.  He 
carefully  canvasses  the  probabilities,  and  he  has  done  as  much 
as  that  many  times  since  he  began  to  see  visions  of  New  Eng- 
land's future;  he  goes  over  in  his  mind  the  facts  he  has  seen 
and  learned  during  these  past  few  years  of  the  parturition  of 
the  new  spirit  of  progress ;  he  tries  to  correlate  those  facts 
with  the  disposition  for  progress  he  has  noted,  and  nursed,  in 
the  breasts  of  the  native  New  Englanders,  and  the  smashing 
resolve  to  get  on  he  has  seen  develop  in  the  lives  of  the  new 
men  who  have  come  to  us  from  over  the  seas ;  he  searches  his 
own  consciousness  for  signs  of  the  working  of  a  common  mo- 
tive, and  he  considers  whether  the  passion  that  burns  him  is 
a  part  of  a  common  passion,  or  is  in  any  way  indicative  of  a 
common  passion ;  he  draws  his  mental  vision  within  the  range 
of  his  personal  knowledge,  and  scans  his  neighbors,  as  they 
may  have  revealed  themselves  to  him  during  the  past  few 
years ;  he  departs  from  this  psychological  field  and  begins  to 
pass  general  conditions  as  they  have  changed  in  recent  years 
before  his  horoscope  and  through  the  filter  of  his  mind,  re- 
calling changing  market  conditions,  the  upward  trend  of 

[  418  ] 


Potential  New  England 

prices,  the  enlarged  demand  for  manufactured  goods  and  for 
the  products  of  the  land,  the  new  methods  of  transportation, 
the  wonderfully  enlarged  economies  in  business,  the  revolu- 
tionary changes  in  the  methods  of  working  the  land,  the 
vastly  increased  personal  demands  for  luxuries  and  conveni- 
ences, and  above  all  the  tremendous  power  of  that  new  spirit 
in  business  that  seems  to  wrest  from  their  raw  potentialities 
fortunes  whose  existence  had  previously  been  little  more  than 
suspected.  Gradually  there  comes  upon  this  New  Englander's 
mind-screen  a  picture,  sharp  and  distinct  and  vivid,  of  the 
New  England  that  is  coming,  that  has  begun  to  arrive,  and 
he  is  able  to  define  and  formulate  his  hope,  and  describe  that 
which  he  finds  has  been  accomplished. 

First  in  importance,  it  may  be,  in  thinking  about  the  future 
of  New  England,  stands  the  great  racial  fact  that  the  prog- 
ress of  the  Pilgrims  westward  has  been  checked  by  the  Pacific 
ocean.  Were  it  not  for  this  physical  barrier  it  is  conceivable 
that  the  Pilgrim  and  his  seed  would  go  marching  on  into  the 
west  until  the  Day  of  Judgment.  And  as  it  is,  the  Pacific  has 
not  absolutely  dammed  the  westward  flow  of  the  Pilgrims.  It 
has  however  checked  it,  and  turned  back  a  large  proportion 
of  the  throng.  With  the  Pacific  in  front  some  other  direction 
must  be  chosen  for  the  march.  By  this  time,  too,  New  England 
had  become  a  mythical  far  country  to  those  men  who  had  car- 
ried progress  to  the  western  verge  of  the  land,  and  had  there- 
fore become  a  lure  for  the  pilgrim  fated  to  carry  the  flag  of 
progress ;  and  there  was  the  motive  of  the  crusader  —  the 
need  of  the  people  in  this  far  northeastern  country  of  grand- 
father tales  and  vague  father  memories.  That  people  needed 
the  stimulus  of  the  enterprise  to  which  the  men  who  had  devel- 
oped the  West  had  been  bred.  And  back  there  in  New  Eng- 
land, opportunity  awaited.  So  the  minds  of  men  who  have  the 
making  of  the  world  heavy  upon  their  consciousnesses  turned 
toward  New  England,  and  they  are  with  us  now,  in  person 
and  in  motive  and  method.  Here  is  one  of  the  significant  facts 
that  is  operative  in  the  renaissance  of  New  England:  That 
the  men  of  action  and  pioneer  spirit  are  coming  back  to  us, 
and  that  we  are  welcoming  both  the  men  and  their  spirit. 

[419] 


Potential  New  England 

Perhaps  the  most  notable  among  the  large  farming  enterprises 
that  have  recently  sprung  up  in  New  England  is  managed  by 
a  Texan ;  and  one  of  the  more  significant  facts  in  connection 
with  the  reclamation  of  farms  in  New  England  that  have 
been  "  abandoned  "  and  sold  is  that  a  large  proportion  of 
the  purchasers  come  from  beyond  the  Mississippi  and  from 
beyond  the  Atlantic.  Of  the  instances  of  the  creation  of  fine 
summer  residences  in  the  scenic  regions  of  New  England  by 
men  from  other  states  it  is  noted  that  many  of  them  come 
from  the  western  states.  Those  men  who  come  to  New  Eng- 
land to  work  the  land  come  because  we  have  here  the  market 
for  their  produce;  because  the  saving  in  transportation  costs 
amounts  to  a  generous  profit;  because  they  estimate  the  op- 
portunity of  studying  the  markets  at  close  range  and  the 
chance  to  respond  to  their  demands,  as  equivalent  to  a  con- 
siderable margin  of  profit;  because  of  the  variety  of  produce 
they  may  raise  and  sell;  and  because  the  variegated  soils  of 
New  England  offer  the  man  of  enterprise  a  variegated  oppor- 
tunity, as  they  will  respond  to  the  modern  methods  of  treat- 
ment and  fertilization  more  readily  and  surely  than  do  the 
more  uniform  and  artificial  soils  of  the  great  bottoms  of  the 
West.  When  a  sheep  raiser  in  Veimont  can  show  a  5  percent 
profit  on  $4000  as  the  result  of  an  investment  of  about  $800, 
it  is  not  competent  for  the  critic  of  New  England  to  claim 
that  sheep  must  be  raised  in  Ohio,  Montana,  or  Texas.  Or 
when  a  man  can  take  an  old  apple  orchard  and  spend  $1000 
or  $1500  in  doctoring  it  into  a  condition  of  health  and  then 
take  earnings  from  it  equivalent  to  legal  interest  on  $300,000, 
it  is  not  necessary  to  claim  that  apples  must  be  grown  in  Mis- 
souri, Kansas,  Colorado,  or  in  the  wonderful  Hood  River 
valley  in  Oregon.  The  Pilgrims  who  have  been  halted  on  the 
Pacific  shore  know  these  facts,  and  they  have  suddenly  real- 
ized what  they  mean  —  that  their  fathers  and  grandfathers 
left  the  real  Eldorado  on  the  far  shores  of  the  Atlantic;  and 
they  are  coming  back  to  help  us  and  inspire  us,  and  it  may 
be  to  shame  us  a  little.  The  significance  of  this  return  of  the 
native  is  not  perceived  in  the  mere  fact  that  some  hundreds 
or  thousands  of  men  of  New  England  lineage  and  stock  are 

[  421  1 


New  England 

coming  back  to  its  acres,  but  that  their  coming  back  evidences 
the  fact  that  there  is  in  our  people  the  .idea  that  times  have 
changed,  and  that  a  new  order  of  industry  is  coming  into  gen- 
eral acceptance  in  America.  We  have  gone  over  much  of  our 
land  and  sucked  the  virtue  out  of  its  surface.  We  have  been 
cropping  the  land ;  now  we  must  cultivate  it.  As  this  is  a  dif- 
ferent proposition,  it  has  led  to  a  new  canvass  of  conditions. 
If  farming  must  be  intensive,  why  should  not  the  farmer  prac- 
tice those  methods  where  he  can  touch  elbows  with  three- 
quarters  of  the  markets  of  America?  And  why  should  not  the 
farmer  come  once  again  within  the  influence  of  the  most  in- 
tense zone  of  American  civilization? 

In  a  large  sense,  some  of  the  basic  considerations  that  are 
drawing  us  to  the  land  of  New  England  with  a  new  compre- 
hension of  the  opportunities  it  offers  to  us  are  racial,  some 
are  social,  and  some  are  economic.  The  same  motives  are  also 
operating  in  favor  of  manufacturing,  with  the  added  element 
involving  the  character  and  availability  of  help.  But  the  re- 
turn to  the  land,  and  the  new  appraisement  of  the  land  which 
has  become  possible  because  of  the  new  knowledge  and  the 
expansion  of  the  markets,  is  the  most  significant  hope  that 
we  have  for  an  enlarged  future  for  New  England.  We  look 
for  the  doubling  of  the  products  of  the  land  in  the  very  near 
future,  and  we  believe  that  that  which  has  been  said  of  agri- 
culture in  the  preceding  pages  of  this  book  justifies  that  hope. 
The  course  of  events  justifies  it  also,  since  the  rate  of  in- 
crease leading  to  it  has  been  inaugurated,  and  we  may  say 
that  we  realize  that  we  are  fairly  on  the  road.  But  while  we 
are  justified  in  expecting  that  our  agricultural  output  may  be 
doubled,  let  us  not  set  that  limit  for  the  possible  increase.  It 
should  be  doubled  with  very  little  effort,  with  the  application 
of  a  very  little  of  the  knowledge  that  we  now  have  at  our  dis- 
posal. The  agricultural  and  horticultural  product  of  New 
England  should  be  increased  tenfold,  and  then  we  might 
fairly  flatter  ourselves*  that  we  had  begun  substantial  prog- 
ress. We  would  really  have  done  little  more  than  made  appre- 
ciable progress  toward  the  possible  maximum  of  product 
from  the  land  of  New  England.  Suppose,  just  for  a  moment, 

[  422  1 


Potential  New  England 

that  we  let  our  imagination  take  a  flight,  only  as  far  as  the 
leash  of  reason  will  allow.  Take  apples:  Do  we  raise  more 
than  1  percent  as  many  apples  as  we  might,  if  all  the  good 
apple  land  were  utilized  properly,  and  all  the  orchards  prop- 
erly cultivated  and  cared  for?  Surely  we  do  not.  And  the 
apples  we  do  raise  are  not  properly  marketed.  Where  can  a 
box  of  New  England  apples  be  purchased  that  is  graded  and 
packed  equal  to  the  apples  we  pay  three  or  four  prices  for 
that  come  to  us  from  the  other  side  of  the  continent?  Such  a 
box  cannot  be  bought  in  any  market  in  New  England.  Why 
not  ?  The  answer  to  this  question  is  the  answer  to  all  questions 
concerning  the  industries  of  New  England  that  are  not  de- 
veloped up  to  near  100  percent. 

This  New  Englander,  with  imagination  indulging  in  a  vision, 
sees  the  streams  of  New  England  utilized;  dams  at  intervals 
across  them,  and  power  houses  located  where  they  can  furnish 
electricity  for  the  lighting  of  the  towns  and  cities,  and  for 
power  for  the  factories  that  must  be  located  where  help  and 
transportation  are  available.  Here  is  a  solution  of  the  great 
coal  question.  It  is  entirely  practicable,  even  now,  to  light  and 
heat  houses  with  electricity,  and  for  the  housewife  to  do  all  her 
cooking  with  that  fluid.  That  such  a  condition  is  not  now  in 
existence  is  due  to  the  lack  of  courage  on  the  part  of  our  capi- 
talists. The  waterpower  we  have,  and  it  is  running  to  waste, 
carrying  with  it  down  to  the  sea  riches  greater  than  those 
yielded  by  any  gold  mine  in  the  world  —  riches  that  cannot  be 
consumed,  only  used  in  passing.  The  water  is  just  as  good 
water,  for  any  purpose,  after  it  has  turned  a  turbine  as  be- 
fore. Nothing  is  taken  from  it ;  it  need  not  be  corrupted  in  the 
slightest  degree.  The  water  that  supplies  towns  and  cities  may 
as  well  turn  power  turbines  as  go  idly  in  conduits  to  the  con- 
sumers. This  truth  is  making  its  impression  upon  capitalists 
and  economists,  and  there  are  many  indications  that  the  com- 
ing decade  will  see  substantial  progress  toward  some  utiliza- 
tion of  the  power  the  good  God  furnishes  so  prodigally.  The 
signs  are  multiplying  of  a  great  revival  in  the  manufacturing 
in  New  England,  and  they  show  that  these  streams  and  wa- 
terpowers  are  to  be  made  to  produce  for  the  region  so  much 

[  423  1 


New  England 

additional  wealth  as  to  put  New  England  supremely  in  the 
lead.  Where  now  we  admire  the  river  rushing  down  series  of 
rapids,  we  are  to  see  fine  factories ;  and  where  we  poetize  by 
the  side  of  the  purling  brook,  or  whip  its  surface  for  the  tra- 
ditional trout,  we  are  to  see  the  small  power  house  within  which 
is  generated  the  electricity  needed  to  light  the  near-by  town,  to 
operate  the  creamery  that  converts  the  farmers'  milk  into  but- 


WITHIN  EIGHT  MILES  OF  MASSACHUSETTS  STATE  HOUSE 


ter,  and  even  the  little  plant  that  makes  the  light  and  power 
needed  by  the  progressive  farmer.  These  things  we  are  to  see. 
They  are  not  mere  dreams,  even  dreams  with  some  probability 
for  their  motives  —  they  are  on  the  way,  and  some  of  them 
have  arrived  —  the  advance  guard  of  an  industrial  revolution 
the  extent  of  which  we  of  staid  and  unimaginative  New  Eng- 
land scarcely  yet  dare  to  receive  with  the  hospitality  of  reality. 
To  become  assured  that  this  view  is  not  overwrought  but  within 
the  limits  of  the  coldest  of  business  judgment,  it  is  only  neces- 

f  424  1 


Potential  New  England 

sary  to  review  in  the  mind  the  great  waterpower  projects  that 
are  now  either  being  built  or  in  advanced  stage  of  preparation. 
Some  of  these  projects  are  so  large  as  to  promise  great  revo- 
lutionary changes  for  the  entire  region  they  affect,  as  well  as 
very  great  advantage  for  the  manufacturing  they  will  furnish 
power  for.  The  projects  that  are  to  utilize  the  power  of  the 
upper  Connecticut  river  and  the  Deerfield  river  will  inevi- 
tably modify  strongly  several  considerable  towns,  and  make 
such  changes  in  municipal  and  business  matters  as  will  inure 
very  considerably  to  the  benefit  of  large  areas  of  country. 
They  will  as  a  matter  of  fact  recreate  a  number  of  communi- 
ties which  are  now,  and  for  many  years  have  been,  somnolent, 
to  apply  to  them  the  most  mild  descriptive  term  consistent  with 
a  fair  regard  for  exactness  and  truth ;  and  they  will  transform 
the  lives  and  enhance  the  fortune  of  a  great  body  of  New  Eng- 
land people.  That  the  prime  motive  of  the  promoters  of  some 
of  these  enterprises  is  business  gain  must  not  be  allowed  to 
blind  us  to  the  very  great  economic  value  of  their  work,  nor 
persuade  us  to  deny  to  them  credit  for  the  important  work  in 
the  building  of  New  England  they  are  doing.  A  typical  ex- 
ample may  be  mentioned: 

Plans  have  recently  been  consummated  for  the  complete  de- 
velopment of  one  of  the  small  mountain  streams  of  southern 
Vermont.  In  the  high  plateau  in  which  this  stream  rises  a  huge 
reservoir  (larger  than  most  of  the  irrigation  reservoirs  built 
by  the  national  government  in  the  far  West)  will  be  con- 
structed. This  will  impound  the  entire  flow  of  the  stream,  sav- 
ing all  of  the  flood  waters  of  spring  and  giving  an  absolutely 
uniform  flow  throughout  the  year.  From  this  reservoir,  by 
means  of  canals  and  tunnels,  the  water  will  be  carried  along 
the  side  of  the  mountain  for  a  distance  of  ten  miles  until  it  is 
finally  returned  to  the  stream  under  a  working  head  of  1000 
feet.  It  is  estimated  that  this  one  development  will  deliver  in 
central  New  England  75,000  electric  horsepower,  and  because 
of  the  huge  storage  basin,  the  power  thus  developed  will  be 
continuous  and  will  not  be  liable  to  interruption  through  the 
floods  of  spring  or  the  droughts  of  summer.  With  the  water- 
powers  of  northern  New  England  made  economically  available 

[  425  1 


Potential  New  England 

in  the  form  of  electric  energy,  delivered  to  the  great  industrial 
centers  of  the  southern  and  central  section,  it  is  by  no  means 
unlikely  that  the  next  ten  years  will  see  hydro-electric  power 
used  in  every  large  city  of  New  England. 

This  means  that  this  little  inconsequent  New  England 
stream  which  has  been  of  no  particular  benefit  to  anybody 
except  the  fishermen,  is  to  be  made  to  earn  something  like 
$4,000,000  per  annum,  when  its  potential  power  is  harnessed 
and  sold;  and  all  of  its  water  will  be  returned  to  its  channel, 
wholly  undamaged,  so  far  as  its  quality  and  quantity  are  con- 
cerned, through  being  used  to  generate  power.  Consider  that 
this  is  but  one  of  the  minor  possibilities  for  power  from  un- 
used streams.  There  is  one  river  in  Maine  that  will  yield  200,- 
000  additional  horsepower  whenever  it  is  harnessed.  This  will 
mean  something  like  $12,000,000  added  to  the  explicit  wealth 
of  the  State,  every  year.  Compute  the  other  possibilities  of  the 
same  character,  and  then  try  and  realize  what  the  unuse^ 
waterpower  in  New  England  means  as  a  definite  asset. 

One  of  the  most  hopeful  signs  for  New  England,  and  cer- 
tainly one  of  the  chief  grounds  for  expecting  the  potential 
New  England  to  develop  rapidly,  is  found  in  the  purposes 
and  attitude  of  the  many  business  bodies  which  are  now  study- 
ing the  problem.  Nothing  is  more  indicative  than  this.  The 
boards  of  trade  and  chambers  of  commerce  in  the  live  New 
England  cities  are  doing  work  that  has  never  before  been  done 
by  commercial  bodies  anywhere.  This  work  is  led,  and,  in  a 
broad  sense,  formulated,  by  the  Boston  Chamber  of  Com- 
merce. This  great  civic  body  is  led  by  men  who  do  not  shrink 
from  attacking  any  problem  that  promises  ultimate  benefit  to 
New  England,  and  they  now  have  plans  in  hand  which  will 
result  in  pushing  New  England  far  along  toward  the  poten- 
tial goal  it  is  destined  for.  Its  work  is  a  guaranty  that  who- 
ever imagines  a  New  England  of  the  future  that  shall  fulfill 
all  the  logical  hopes  engendered  by  full  knowledge  of  the  con- 
ditions now  being  revealed  shall  be  known  as  a  prophet  rather 
than  a  dreamer.  Organized  with  its  present  scope  so  short  a 
time  that  there  is  but  little  of  its  broad  program  yet  accom- 
plished, it  is  destined  to  make  a  wide  and  permanent  mark 

[  427  1 


New  England 

upon  the  industrial  history  of  New  England.  And  it  is  not  so 
much  to  credit  this  civic  body  with  the  work  it  has  in  hand  as 
to  suggest  that  that  work  results  from  an  aroused  and  in- 
formed public  sentiment  in  New  England  with  respect  to  New 
England.  This  great  and  potent  body  of  business  men  work- 
ing in  a  very  broad  and  liberal  spirit  for  the  public  good 
would  have  been  impossible  at  any  stage  in  the  history  of 
New  England  prior  to  the  immediate  present.  That  it  has 
proved  to  be  possible  now  is  all  the  evidence  that  is  needed 
that  there  is  a  better  and  more  progressive  spirit  abroad  in 
these  six  states,  and  that  it  is  ready  to  undertake  the  most 
progressive,  even  the  most  daring,  work  for  the  betterment 
of  business  and  business  conditions. 

But  it  is  not  to  be  assumed  that  this  new  spirit,  expressed 
by  the  organization  and  the  work  of  the  Boston  Chamber  of 
Commerce,  and  several  other  similarly  active  and  progressive 
business  organizations  in  other  New  England  cities,  is  par- 
taken of  by  the  people  of  New  England  generally.  It  is  meet 
that  in  making  this  appraisal  of  the  prospects  and  opportuni- 
ties of  New  England  there  should  be  an  honest  attempt  to 
arrive  at  the  truth.  Self  examination  does  not  consist  in  look- 
ing upon  only  one  side  of  the  shield.  We  are  not  disposed  to 
deny  the  facts  and  elements  that  have  made  for  our  retarded 
development,  and  that  still  make  for  hesitancy  rather  than 
progress.  Whoever  attempts  to  estimate  the  future  of  indus- 
trial New  England  comes  to  the  inevitable  conclusion  that  it  is 
the  people  that  must  finally  be  dealt  with.  It  is  becoming  in- 
creasingly evident  that  they  have  now  fully  decided  to  go  for- 
ward, and  that  so  far  as  the  will  and  disposition  of  the  more 
enlightened  among  them  is  concerned  the  question  has  become 
one  of  directing  the  forward  movement  rather  than  inciting  to  it. 
While  it  is  necessary  to  give  full  recognition  to  the  traditional 
attitude  of  the  people,  and  to  gauge  the  significance  of  what- 
ever advance  we  may  perceive  with  that  always  in  full  view,  the 
fact  that  there  is  forward  movement  definitely  noted  is  of  very 
great  importance.  It  is  a  characteristic  of  New  England  that 
when  an  advance  is  recognized  as  desirable  it  is  made  in  a  man- 
ner that  atones  for  all  the  slowness  and  hesitancy  of  initiative. 

[  428  1 


Potential  New  England 

There  were  many  cities  in  the  West  and  Northwest,  and  a  con- 
siderable number  in  the  South,  that  had  adopted  the  new  policy 
of  promoting  growth  through  publicity  methods  before  any 
town  or  city  in  New  England  evinced  much  interest  in  it.  But 
when  the  thrill  did  attack  the  New  England  imagination  action 
was  characteristically  vigorous  and  efficient ;  and  the  result  was 
the  wonderful  group  of  civic-business  organizations  typified 
by  the  Boston  Chamber  of  Commerce,  the  Boston-1915  move- 
ment, the  Pilgrim  Publicity  Association,  the  Springfield, 
Worcester,  Providence,  Pittsfield,  Lowell,  Fitchburg,  New 
Bedford,  and  several  other  organizations,  which  have  already 
rendered  their  cities  inestimable  services. 

There  is  a  very  great  awakening  with  respect  to  the  manu- 
facturing opportunities.  What  those  opportunities  are  es- 
teemed to  be  has  been  shown  elsewhere.  Potential  New  Eng- 
land is  concerned  with  the  fact  that  they  are  being  utilized, 
and  at  such  a  rate  as  gives  adequate  promise  that  the  su- 
premacy of  this  region  in  its  distinctive  lines  of  manufactur- 
ing is  not  likely  to  be  successfully  challenged  for  a  long  time 
to  come. 

There  is  great  potential  growth  for  New  England  predi- 
cated in  the  greater  use  of  its  capital  within  its  own  territory. 
The  tendency  in  this  direction  is  not  as  marked  as  might  be 
wished,  but  there  is  a  tendency.  New  England  has  furnished 
capital  for  the  outposts  of  progress,  all  the  way  from  New 
York  and  Pennsylvania  to  San  Francisco,  Seattle,  Los  An- 
geles, New  Orleans,  and  Key  West ;  and  it  will  likely  continue 
to  send  money  to  all  that  territory  as  long  as  there  is  any  call 
for  it.  But  the  call  is  slackening  at  about  the  time  conditions 
have  created  new  opportunity  in  New  England.  N,ow  capital 
is  just  beginning  to  look  over  the  land  in  New  England,  and 
to  study  market  conditions.  Between  the  land  that  is  not  util- 
ized and  the  markets  that  have  to  draw  heavily  upon  the 
West  and  the  South  for  their  supplies,  the  capitalist  sees 
his  opportunity.  That  he  does  see  his  opportunity  is  evi- 
denced by  the  thousands  of  fruit  trees  planted  last  year, 
the  stock-raising  enterprises  being  established  in  the  three 
northern  states,  the  increasing:  number  of  market  gardening 

[  429  1 


New  England 

plants,  the  big  general  farms  coming  to  attention  in  all 
the  states,  and  especially  by  the  more  rapid  sale  of  all  good 
land  offered. 

But  when  all  is  said  that  can  be  said  about  the  great  items 
of  potential  wealth  and  growth  for  the  greater  New  England, 
there  remains  its  land  to  reckon  as  by  far  the  greatest  one 
element  in  its  growth  and  increasing  wealth.  The  land  of  New 


A  BOSTON   SUBURBAN  RESIDENCE 

England  is  an  asset  the  value  of  which  but  few  guess.  We  have 
been  for  so  many  years  so  completely  obsessed  with  the  idea 
that  the  only  good  land  lies  beyond  the  Alleghanies,  or  beyond 
the  Mississippi,  or  even  beyond  the  Rocky  Mountains- or 
north  of  our  national  boundary,  that  we  have  been  looking 
over  the  great  tracts  of  the  best  land  in  the  United  States 
which  lie  within  the  boundaries  of  New  England.  Likewise  we 
have  been  reading  and  thinking  about  the  plowing  of  prairies 
with  steam-gang  plows,  harvesting  with  30-horse  reapers 
and  threshers,  and  the  other  wholesale  methods  employed  in 
the  working  of  the  lands  of  the  West,  and  have  not  learned 
that  we  have  tracts  right  here  at  home  as  virgin  as  the  prairie 

I  430  J 


Potential  New  England 

land  was  before  a  plow  touched  it,  as  extensive  as  the  most 
greedy  farm  man  could  wish,  and  as  capable  of  producing 
money-making  crops  as  any  land  in  any  part  of  the  country, 
bar  none.  And  it  can  be  bought  for  ridiculously  low  prices, 
and  can  be  improved  easily  and  cheaply.  There  are  several 
tracts  of  this  kind,  ready  to  be  bought  and  ready  to  be  im- 
proved. There  are  other  great  tracts  that  are  fit  only  for 
grazing,  and  yet  others  that  are  fit  only  for  reforesting. 
Properly  treated,  all  of  these  lands  will  make  a  profit  for  the 
owner,  and  a  good  profit.  Twenty-five  percent  can  easily  be 
made  raising  sheep,  and  the  cost  of  fencing  the  pastures  with 
dog-proof  fence  is  included  in  estimates.  Reforesting  is  one 
of  the  more  profitable  of  land  enterprises,  though  slow  in 
making  returns.  It  is  estimated  by  the  best  authorities  that 
the  agricultural  product  of  New  England  may  be  quadrupled 
by  the  proper  handling  of  the  land  now  reckoned  as  farm 
land  in  use.  If  all  the  land  adapted  to  agriculture  and  stock 
raising  were  to  be  utilized  in  a  reasonably  proper  manner,  the 
output  from  New  England  land  would  be  increased  from  ten 
to  twenty  fold  —  it  is  chiefly  a  matter  of  speculation  how 
much,  but  enormously. 

Viewing  the  prospect  o'er  we  are,  therefore,  confident  that 
in  New  England  there  are  forces  now  at  work,  and  that  the 
evidence  of  their  influence  is  sufficiently  well  known,  to  assure 
us  that  in  the  industries  relating  to  the  land,  in  manufactur- 
ing, in  trade,  in  civic  enterprise  and  virtue,  in  learning,  in  the 
fine  arts,  in  morals  and  esthetics,  in  racial  improvement,  and 
in  general  uplift,  New  England  is  entering  a  period  of  ac- 
celerated progress ;  that  it  as  a  section  is  to  more  than  main- 
tain its  place;  that  it  is  to  be  the  theater  of  great  develop- 
ments —  perhaps  the  most  notable  development  the  country 
will  be  able  to  show  during  the  first  half  of  the  Twentieth 
Century.  This  we  believe,  and  we  believe  that  belief  rests  upon 
visible  premises  and  reasonable  deductions. 


431 


Boston  Chamber  of  Commerce 
Industrial  and  Educational 

Exposition 


WHAT  is  intended  to  be  the  greatest  Industrial  and 
Educational  Exposition  ever  held  in  New  England 
will   be   opened   in   the    Mechanics   Building,   Boston,   in 
October,   1911,  running    for   the   entire    month. 

Since  the  amalgamation  of  the  three  large  trade  organi- 
zations into  one  —  the  Boston  Chamber  of  Commerce  —  the 
matter  of  an  Industrial  and  Educational  Exposition  has  been 
considered  by  the  Committees  on  Industrial  Development, 
Education,  Manufactures  and  Trade  Extension,  and  having 
received  unanimous  reports  from  all  four  Committees 
recommending  that  such  an  Exposition  be  held,  the  Board 
of  Directors  voted  that  the  Trade  Extension  Committee 
should  arrange  for  and  direct  this  Exposition. 

THE    PURPOSES   of 
the  EXPOSITION  ARE: 

First:  To  promote  manufacturing  and  commercial  activity  in 
New  England. 

Second:  To  show  the  people  of  New  England  the  methods  and 
extent  of  our  manufactures  and  resources. 

Third:  To  attract  the  attention  of  the  whole  country  to  New 
England's  large  and  varied  industries. 

Fourth  :  To  bring  the  employer  and  workman,  merchant  and 
buyer,  into  closer  touch  with  manufactory  and  its  products. 

Fifth:  To  stimulate  the  people  of  New  England,  particularly  the 
younger  generation,  to  a  realization  of  the  dignity  and  possi- 
bilities of  a  trade,  and  thus  promote  industrial  education. 


HC 

1  01 


F7 


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